I want to form my own opinions about the presidents of the US, but reading most books on them is bound to be biased in some way. For example, a democrat could choose to focus on Reagan's negative sides, and dismiss the positives etc.
Any help would be appreciated!
Everything is supposed to be documented according to Federal law. Every official action, whether it be a meeting or a phone call or what have you is documented in the Presidential Daily Diary and all official correspondence is saved. Most of this information can be found in any of the several Presidential Libraries. This information is maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (https://www.archives.gov/) For an example of what can be found at the Presidential Libraries you might want to see the Reagan Library's web site (https://reaganlibrary.gov/about-the-archives)
So I'm reading this primarily as a source request:
You're going to love the UCSB Presidency project:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index_docs.php
it has most of the stuff you're looking for and is much nicer to navigate through than archives.gov
e.g. here are some of the types of things it has
• Public Papers of the Presidents • State of the Union Addresses & Messages • Inaugural Addresses • Farewell Addresses • Weekly Addresses • Fireside Chats • News Conferences • Executive Orders • Proclamations • Signing Statements • Press Briefings • Statements of Administration Policy • Economic Report of the President • Debates • Convention Speeches • Party Platforms • 2016 Election Documents • 2012 Election Documents • 2008 Election Documents • 2004 Election Documents • 1960 Election Documents • 2017 Transition • 2009 Transition • 2001 Transition
availability (and, just as importantly ability to find what you're looking for) is a surprisingly thorny question I might make a separate post answering.