* Nonfiction. By William Kleinknecht. Nation Books, 352 pages, $26.95. Grade: B

Book in a nutshell: Kleinknecht, of Newark, N.J.'s Star-Ledger, began his journalism career in 1981 with inner-city crime reporting. His subject in The Man Who Sold The World, Ronald Reagan, began his presidential career at the same time, and Kleinknecht sounds pretty bitter about the Republican idol.

The book sloughs off 30 years of polished hero imaging to reveal a disassociated, anti-poor, pro-rapacious business figurehead prodded this way and that by a gang of power brokers determined to strip away fiscal, health and transparency regulations.

In other words, if the name Reagan wasn't affixed to this profile, such a character might be tarred and feathered in today's climate, a far cry from the small town, just-folks patriotism commonly associated with Reagan.

Among other points, the author cites statistics that the Reagan administration, spurred on by Attorney General Edwin Meese, launched a military-style war on drugs at a time when crime was dropping. Kleinknecht writes movingly of inner-city black and Hispanic young people swept off to prison and dehumanized upon release, ruining a generation of American citizens.

Best tidbit: Kleinknecht notes that during Reagan's reign, a message was conveyed that city life was hedonistic. But to the contrary, he notes that "cities have been the progenitors of all that is grand and sublime in our world, great throbbing centers of life . . ."

Pros: The author offers an intriguing examination of commercialism as studied by 1950s sociologists and filtered by media, essentially rewiring the human brain. Quoting T. W. Adorno: " . . . broad changes in social conditions and institutions will have a direct bearing upon the kinds of personalities that develop within a society." This media saturation, he contends, paved the way for the first movie-star (and former GE corporate spokesman) president, Ronald Reagan.

Cons: Kleinknecht spews venom as he demonizes public elites, his critique morphing into anger. His anti-Reagan, anti-corporate thesis perhaps is as radical as Reagan's deregulation spree.

Final word: Kleinknecht reads Reaganism as cognitive dissonance, small-town values serving as a cover for the Iran/Contra scandal and the looting of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Was old Ronnie really that bad? Probably not, but this salient tome serves as a minority report for the president's "Morning in America."