First and Last Emperors, by the brilliant Brian Massumi and Kenneth Dean:
The Reagan presidency reintroduced the body of the leader as an effective mechanism in US politics. With it resurfaced reminders of a despotic past, attitudes and images that would seem more at home in ancient China or Rome, or in the France of Louis XIV, than in late-capitalist America. For all his archaism, Reagan worked. And to a surprising extent, he worked through the vehicle of his body. It will be maintained that he is still at work, even after his practical withdrawal from the political scene; and that he will continue to be at work, even after his belated death. United States policy under Bush has followed the political course set by Reagan blow by blow, Panama for Grenada, Saddam Hussein for Khomeini. Bush staged an even more crowd-pleasing Middle East hostage drama than his mentor had, escalating from threats to open war as he merrily set about trying to bomb his way to the mother of all reelections, in bloody one-upsmanship over the behind-the-scenes negotiations with Iran that had crowned Reagan's first term inauguration.
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