Book Description

No one is more qualified to give a fully rounded, objective portrait of our forty-first president than Tom Wicker. A political correspondent for The New York Times for more than thirty years, Wicker was a first-hand witness to and reporter of George H. W. Bush’s political rise and presidential reign. In George Herbert Walker Bush, Wicker provides a richly drawn and succinct overview of Bush from his New England roots, his decorated service in World War II, and his successful oil businesses to his shift to politics and rapid rise within the Republican party. As he describes changes within the Republican party in recent decades, Wicker charts Bush’s career, including in-depth analysis of his campaign tactics and his gift for creating friendships and inspiring loyalty which, Wicker argues, has been the key to Bush’s success. The result is a fascinating, timely glimpse into one of the most powerful families in America today, complete with insights into the current reign of George W. Bush, the continued legacy of the Bush family, and contemporary American politics. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Less a biography and more a polemic
Wicker does a good job of concisely giving you Bush's early political life, his successful House campaigns, his unsuccessful Senate campaigns and what not. He also gives a decent description of Bush's role as ambassador, CIA director and chairman of the RNC in the 1970s. All through the era, Wicker paints Bush as a good soldier for the Republicans, and he comes off as an honorable man.

But once Bush becomes Vice President, Wicker is disappointed in him. Wicker sees Bush as a sell-out of his moderate Republican leanings for the red meat Reagan policies. He compares Bush to a chameleon that changes his colors to blend into the current campaign strategy. On top of that, Wicker contends that Bush could easily change political stripes because he lacked vision and purpose.

Okay, Bush lacked vision, but Wicker doesn't seem to value vision at all when it came from Ronald Reagan. In fact, in the middle of a biography of Bush, Wicker deems it necessary to tell us that Reagan's vision of a Soviet Free Europe had absolutely no role in bringing down that superpower. He's just got to tell us that Gorby saved the world not Reagan. That Gorby's goal was the opposite of Reagan's doesn't mean anything to this objective journalist. Does that mean that Gorby lacked vision too? Didn't that genius understand that people would be better off out from under his iron boot? Come to think of it, maybe Hitler would have fallen apart too if we'd just given him a chance. History is just replete with examples of totalitarian governments that renounce themselves and become free without outside agitation.

That's the main problem with Wicker's book. It's less a biography of Bush than a step by step criticism of Republican ideology and its failings. How dare a Republican administration treat Saddam Hussein nicely when he was beating up on the hated Iranians. Surely they knew 10 years in advance that he would invade Kuwait and we'd have to go to war with him.

Bush certainly lacked vision compared to Ronald Reagan. But after 8 years of Clinton, a person can sure grow found of decency, loyalty and personal honor. Wicker says as much during the last paragraph of the book. His conclusion is that Bush may have been a mess, but at least he was a brave guy who won the Gulf War. It was almost like the Penguin editors added that at the end so as not to upset Bush enthusiasts.

Every public figure should have positive and negative books written about him/her in order for students of history to get a wide picture. Books are part of the great debate. The trouble with this book is that it's not a good place for conjecture over substance. In a 200 page Penguin Lives' book, I would like to have an outline of the guy's life not a political fight. Wicker could have easily written a larger biography of Bush somewhere else and told us what a numbskull he was. It seems out of place in this series. Am I going to suffer this again if I read Penguin's books on Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther?

Not one for the ages
I've read four or five other Penguin Lives biographies besides this one of George H.W. Bush, and I'm generally a fan of the series and the approach. Designed to be summary overviews, writers are forced to choose key elements and facts from their subject's lives and (ideally) extrapolate them into a portrait that, while not exhaustive in the details, at least gives the reader an idea of who he was, why he did what he did, and how it matters to history. Good writers in this series have managed to pull this off. Others haven't done so well. Unfortunately, Tom Wicker's contribution is one of the latter.

The first tip-off, of course, is Wicker himself. As another reviewer points out -- absolutely correctly -- journalism and biography are different skill sets. It may be too much to ask a journalist who has spent years covering his subject up close to then turn around and have the kind of analytical distance a good bio really requires. This isn't to say a biographer can't have opinions. But they shouldn't be *a priori* ones, and it's too easy to suspect Wicker of having had his mind made up about GHWB before he started to write.

Still, Wicker does hit on many of the major themes of Bush's life -- ones other biographers have identified as well: his sense of *noblesse oblige,* his lifetime of high achievement in most everything he's tried, his friendliness, his history of "running to the right" and then governing from the center. Much of this he interprets as signs of overweening ambition, ruthlessness in destroying opponents, and a desire, above all, to be president of the United States. He paints Bush as a man who played at being conservative because he needed to in order to win election, who swallowed his pride and his centrist principles to serve uncomplainingly under Reagan, but who was unable to win the loyalty of conservatives who anyway tanked the GOP's chances with their divisive 1992 convention in Houston.

Along the way, Wicker recounts many of the highlights of Bush's years as veep and in the White House -- not only Desert Storm and the '92 election (though he devotes the most space to those), but also half-forgotten episodes like the John Tower confirmation fight and the Panama invasion. He also devotes a good deal of time to a what-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it of Bush's role in Iran-Contra. All of this is decent history, and of course belongs in any biography of George Bush. But it seemed as much like a chance for Wicker to rehearse old grudges against, and take swipes at, Reagan and the Republicans. This is another problem with writing biographies of your contemporaries.

As a general rule, the Penguin Lives series is a good way to get a quick thumbnail portrait of the men and women featured in its books. But they're not of uniform quality, and some, like this volume, will definitely leave you wanting more. George H.W. Bush strikes me as an interesting historical figure whose legacy (like J.Q. Adams' or William Howard Taft's) will be seen as coming from someplace other than his years in the White House. There's certainly room for a short summary biography of him, but this title isn't quite it.

Journalism, not scholarship (are they mutually exclusive?)
As an avid reader of the Penguin Lives and American Presidents series, I was surprised to see a Penguin Lives biography of a frankly unremarkable president. I have read seven other Penguin Lives (Napoleon, R.E. Lee, Lincoln, St. Augustine, Joan of Arc, Mao Zedong, Wilson) and have been impressed by both the depth of analysis and amount of historical content in these tightly written books.
This book is not up to the same standard and I'm disappointed in the editors of this otherwise unblemished series for putting their label on it. At 240 pages, Wicker's book is also longer than any other Penguin Lives book I have read. By contrast, Thomas Keneally's excellent P.L. biography of Abe Lincoln was 192 pages. Is there really more to say about Bush the First than the Great Emancipator?
First of all, the book is chock full of stupid factual mistakes. Two stood out as soon as I read them and undermined the entire book's credibility: First, Wicker writes that Richard Nixon resigned in 1984 (as opposed to 1974), and toward the end he claims that George W. Bush's presidency began in 2002 (as opposed to 2001). This sloppy scholarship made it less of a surprise to me that Wicker was a correspondent for the New York Times, a journal that after the Jayson Blair scandal has little credibility itself.
Aside from "Check Your Facts," another Writing 101 rule that Wicker ignores is "Provide Evidence For Your Claims." He calls the belief that Reagan's defense buildup accelerated the collapse of the USSR's economy, and thus Soviet communism, "a common misperception." Okay Tom, you claimed it, now back it up. He doesn't even try. I don't mind someone sharing an opinion, but don't insult my intelligence by expecting me to take it for granted! He offers other purely political opinions that he fails to support with any evidence, especially when outlining Bush's political collapse in 1992.
Overall, his thesis is fairly interesting, but also fairly obvious. Bush the First was a president of morals but little conviction who got to office on his friendliness and Reagan's coattails, and he was ultimately rejected by conservatives and the nation's voters because of it. I can think of forty-two other presidents whose biographies I would rather read.
The subject, GHWB's life, is admittedly quite interesting. He held a wider variety of government jobs than any other president I can think of. While George H.W. Bush's presidency was uninspring and thus not a great idea for a biography, it is Tom Wicker's sloppy fact-checking and unsupported editorializing that make this book truly stink.

Competent and predictable
Tom Wicker contributes the latest election year biography of the president's father. This volume is an improvement over his similar work on Dwight Eisenhower for Times Books' American Presidents series. That volume suffered from an overabundance of journalism and not enough scholarship, in that Wicker took his newsman's ideas about Eisenhower (which really hadn't changed in the last 50 years) and imposed them on his work. One expected to hear the Adlai Stevenson jingle playing in the background.

His biography of GHW Bush is better in this regard, but suffers from some of the same flaws. For example, you'll never convince Tom Wicker that Reagan was anything other than an idiot that Bush more or less suffered nobly for eight years (along with the rest of the nation which inexplicably kept electing him). And Wicker will have none of this foolishness that it was the defense buildup of the eighties that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Curiously, he gives no alternate explanation for this, I guess because it couldn't possibly have been attributable to Reagan's leadership (or Bush's for that matter).

He gives ample praise to Bush for the coalition he built for Gulf War I, though it does come off as backhanded, since he might be insinuating that the father outdid the son in this regard when it came to Gulf War II. And a good portion of the book is spent reliving the debacle of the 1992 election, which has Wicker excoriating Bush for miscues that were later duplicated during the Clinton Administration, but I guess were okay then. For example, it's too bad that Bush stooped to low tactics in regard to Willie Horton and campaigning against Clinton's supposed character flaws, but Clinton's routine lies about himself and Bush were apparently fair game since they aren't mentioned.

The point of this review is not to say this is a bad book. It is as fair an assessment of the first Bush presidency as you are likely to get from the former Timesman. It might even be characterized as admirable given the outright lies that are being told about the Bushes in order to keep a dynasty from flourishing. It should be noted, though, that the reader can sense Wicker trying to be "fair" with Bush, and it feels awkward. While this is by no means a hatchet job, its tone at times is at times gratingly patronizing.

But, it's better than you could have expected from, say, Anthony Lewis. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Looking Forward
Throughout the autobiography, I got a headache because the book was so extremely boring.Don't get me wrong, I do respect George Bush.I am just stating that he was a better president than is a writer.After about the first ten to fifteen pages, the book did a steep fall in its level of interest.The next chapters were highly boring and were similar to each other.Being in politics isn't exactly the greatest and most exciting life.All I wanted to say was that if you want action in a story, read "James Bond." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I've met the author
I bought my copy of this book from George himself while on a fishing trip to George's son John's place in Canada. I bought one of the first copies after it was published and George was gracious enough to autograph it for me. Reading this book is a lot like listening to him in person reminisce about his extensive experience in the Canadian bush.

an un-forgetable experance
After reading George's book My son and I took a trip to Georges sons place on Ivanhoe Lake and had the most enjoyable experance ever. We had the experance of seeing some of the enviromental issues George discusses in his book as well as the enjoyment of experencing some of the best fishing ever. ... Read more

Book Description

Six years ago he owned a baseball team. Now he's the leader of the free world. The Big Enchilada is a comic anthem to the wild and improbable crusade that propelled George W. Bush into the White House and to the close-knit group of Texans who made it happen, written by "the Bush campaign's Renaissance man" (Time magazine).

Writer and political strategist Stuart Stevens has been hailed by Martin Amis as "the perfect companion: brave, funny, and ever-watchful," and The New Yorker has praised him for having "a wonderful eye for the curiosities of human behavior." Here he tells the surprisingly funny, adrenaline-fueled story of the Bush campaign the public never saw -- from the Austin coffee shop where Stevens watched Karl Rove sketch out the Republican master plan on a napkin to the small Methodist church in Crawford, Texas, where the blue-jeaned future president prepared for the make-or-break debates that no one expected him to win. He offers the inside view of the rise and flameout of maverick John McCain; the struggle to come up with a message that could be heard over a booming economy ("Times have never been better. Vote for change," campaign aides joked); and the fierce debates over the upside and downside of "going negative" against a vulnerable adversary.

Above all, Stevens turns the familiar political tale of disillusionment on its head. From the moment he arrived in Austin to join the campaign -- "Stevens, get in here and let's bond!" the governor said -- he discovered the peculiar pleasure of working with people who not only respected and admired their candidate but actually liked him. They faced formidable obstacles, from a nation surfing a vast wave of peace and prosperity to an experienced opponent whose seasoned advisers bragged that the campaign would be "a slaughterhouse." But Texans, as Stevens learned, are a confident bunch, and the Bush crowd remained convinced they would win the biggest prize of all -- even on the brink of losing. This is the story of what it was like as only an insider could tell it. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Raunchy, partisan and insightful look at 2000 campaign
Most people view politics like an enema: an unpleasant but occasionally necessary procedure to make the system function properly. It is easy to forget there are people, some quite gifted, who derive actual pleasure from campaigns. These technocrats, whether they be James Carville or author Stuart Stevens, sometimes prove as intriguing as the people they try to elect. In The Big Enchilada, Stevens explains how the hired guns can be just as jaded as everyone else and still excel and take great pride in their chosen profession.

The Big Enchilada is witty, surprisingly raunchy, and insightful. There have been few books written about the actual 2000 presidential campaign. The Big Enchilada focuses primarily on the propaganda war and the other nuts and bolts work that preceded the Tallahassee train wreck. As a result, the reader gets a feel for the loyalty George W. Bush inspired among his campaign advisers, spin doctors, and media consultants. From the moment political guru Karl Rove diagrams the Bush campaign on a napkin until Vice President Al Gore makes his second concession speech, media consultant Stevens explains how an insular, Austin-based organization triumphed over an incumbent's heir apparent in a time of peace and prosperity.

Stevens is at his best when he describes absurd people and moments, such as the demand by the oft-hapless Gore campaign that no cameras be placed behind their candidate's bald head. The author also lays bear the rank hypocrisy of Senator John McCain, who ran on a campaign finance reform platform yet shook down political contributions from the very people over whom he had oversight.

The weakest aspect of the book is Stevens' unflagging loyalty to George W. Bush. In the author's eyes, now-President Bush could do and did no wrong. It would have been nice to see some of the president's dirty laundry without a lame apologia. Also, some of the author's one-liners fall flat although that is the exception rather than the rule.

The people who dedicate themselves to public service and who play the hardball of politics make democracy work. Stevens shows why there is no dearth of hired guns and foot soldiers in the battles that make the system work.

An insider's view of the Bush campaign
Stu Stevens has given quite a contribution here. He writes the inside story of a campaign with the players we have come to know: Rove, Hughes, Bolton, Lindsey, and Rice- although they weren't well known in 1999 when Karl Rove sketched out his winning plan on a coffee house napkin in Austin. This work also shows the relationship that Bush had with others in his campaign, and how people who worked for George W. actually liked him- which Stevens says is a rarity in presidential campaigns. He does an excellent job capturing the real George W. Bush- a man comfortable being who he is, with a laid back yet demanding leadership style. He shows George W. as unflappable, even in the darkest moments of the campaign. This book also gives humorus insights into things like convention and debate preparation, and the little quirks of Gore that got on everyone's nerves toward the end. But most of all, this book shows the tenacity of a campaign that refused to say die, and won the biggest prize in politics. A must read for political junkies, or fans of President Bush...all a Gore person would get from this book is higher blood pressure.

Insider's look at what REALLY happened in last election
Heard the taped version of THE BIG ENCHILADA by
Stuart Stevens, a top aide for George W. Bush's presidential
campaign . . . l very much enjoyed it--despite having thought
that I was overdosed on information on what took place . . . little did I know!

Stevens presents a real insider's look at what actually happened
during both the campaign and infamous recount . . . I found
myself laughing out loud many times, most often at Gore's
ineptitude.

One such example comes to mind: Stevens and other top Bush aides find themselves puzzling over Gore's demand that no cameras be placed behind him during the debate. "It's so his bald spot won't show," Stevens finally realizes. Everyone chuckles.

I also liked reading about the preparation for the Bush/Gore debates . . . it was interesting to find out how the Bush team had somebody "pretend" to be Gore . . . at one time, this individual wanders over to Bush and tries to stare him down . . . a bemused Bush comments, "Is he
really going to do that?"

If you're a political junkie, this is a MUST read. But it should also be enjoyable reading for anybody interested in marketing, history and even humor.

Whoa! Politics is actually entertaining
Wow! No matter what your political bent, this book is a quirky peak into the political subculture of presidential campaigns. Althought this book appears to be 100% political, the story really revolves around the stressful, intense, and humerous life of political marketing. It's also a great biography of George W. Bush. It reinforces the notion that Bush is really a genuine guy. What he lacks in political saviness, he definitely makes up in sincerity and honesty! Well written book deserves a read!

Reliving one of the strangest years in American history
If a lot of the what went on during the 2000 presidential election still remains a source of debate, at least one thing can be agreed upon. The 2000 election was one of the strangest, most improbable elections in recent history. Unfortunately, it has failed to produce the usual number of behind-the-scenes campaign memoirs that usually follow hard fought elections. The majority of the books concerning the 2000 election all seem to center on the whole mess down in Florida and for the most part, are distinguished only by an unseemly amount of either bitterness or gloating depending on the partisan affiliations of their author. However, there haven't been many of the fun, joy-of-politics type memoirs as one might expect.

Which is why the discovery of Stuart Stevens' The Big Enchilada filled this political junkie with an indescribable happiness. Devoting only a bare miminum of its pages to reliving the whole Florida fiasco (Because who isn't sick of rehashing all of that by now?), the Big Enchilada is instead a lively, very witty account of the free wheeling and ultimately succesful presidential campaign for George W. Bush -- from its genesis in an Austin steakhouse all the way to the final lawsuit. Writing in a breezy, always readable style, Stevens manages to avoid the pompous posturing that has marred so many other campaign books. Nor does he use the book to try to turn himself into some sort of mythological hero (as opposed to the campaign memoirs of Dick Morris, Ed Rollins, and other political consultants.) Instead, Stevens provides a witty account of all the campaign milestones that made up 2000 -- Bush's battle for the soul of the Republican Party with John McCain, the brief near-scandal over accusations of subliminal advertising being slipped into Bush campaign ads (and no, Stevens can't quite figure out just what all that was about either), and perhaps most wittily of all, the infamous Bush/Gore debates. (A great deal of space is devoted to Bush's preperations for the debates. At one point, the Senator pretending to be Gore wanders over to Bush and tries to stare him down. A laughing Bush replies, "Is he really going to do that?")

Along with being a politcal consultant, Stevens is a novelist of some acclaim and he writes this book with a strong eye towards character. People who were once only names become vividly human as a result of their memoir -- Karl Rove in all his intensely laid back glory, Al Gore with his school marmish attitude towards the very voters he sought to impress, and others. George W. Bush, himself, comes across as a man so laid back and likeable that you almost regret that he had to lower himself down to the level of politics. This is a book that even as it recounts the big events of the campaign, still finds time to record the little, human details that otherwise would never be reported. Stevens' book is one of the best, most entertaining campaign memoirs -- of the 2000 or any other election -- ever written. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Master Politician of the New Nation
This is the first short history of the Washington presidency to appear in almost thirty years. The last, by Forrest MacDonald, argued that Washington was a figurehead president and that Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson actually dominated the administration. Warren - formerly an editor of the presidential series of The Papers of George Washington - takes the opposite position. He successfully argues that Washington was the central figure of his presidency. The book takes up each of Washington's major accomplishments as president: the creation of the presidency, the settlement of the nation's financial crisis, the opening of the West, the estblishment of the capital city, and the preservation of peace at a time when the Western World was being consumed by war. This is one of the most thoughtful, beautifully-written books on Washington I have read. This would be an ideal book for a college or advanced high school class to read, and should interest any reader of American history. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The premise of Elizabeth Mitchell's W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty is that if you want to understand George W. Bush, you must look at his parents--especially his father. So, it makes sense that Mitchell's book is as much about former President Bush as it is about his son. Mitchell, a former executive editor of George magazine, clearly believes that pleasing his father has been the driving force in George W.'s life, leading him to follow in his father's footsteps almost stride for stride--to Andover, Yale, the oil business, politics, and a run for the presidency. An Andover friend of George W. told Mitchell that he has been resolutely trying "to live up to his father's achievements" his entire life. And that hasn't always proved easy, particularly in school, where George W. excelled in social pursuits rather than academics. "It's the first son syndrome," Mitchell quotes another friend. "You want to live up to the very high expectations set by your father, but at the same time you want to go your own way, so you end up going kicking and screaming down the exact path your father made." His mother, Barbara, even said in an interview that George W. and Jeb's decisions to enter politics "sort of vindicates our life," touching on a recurring theme in the book. "George W. would love to avenge his father's defeat," Mitchell writes. "To some, his political interest seemed ignited less by passion for the issues than by revenge." Full of rich detail and telling anecdotes, W is an important look at a dynasty in waiting. --Linda Killian ... Read more

Reviews (10)

POLITICAL WRITER SCORES WELL WITH EXCELLENT BUSH BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Mitchell, ironically a political writer for George magazine, has done very well in the writing of her first published book, a biography of popular Texas governor George W. Bush, the 2000 presidential election frontrunner. Maintaining an adequately neutral position in the process, Mitchell has penned an entertaining bio that resonates with the boundless energy and competitive fire that have come to be associated with Governor George W. Bush. An informative and worthwhile look at possibly the next to serve us as President of the United States.

A Compelling and Insightful Biography
As a Texan, I especially appreciated how well Mitchell evokes the Midland landscape and people. I also found myself drawn into the compelling dramas of the Bush family, especially the way the family seemed to rally around George Senior and feel protective of him. Mitchell writes with empathy when describing the family's losses, but she can be sharp too-- when she describes their distaste for reading, for example. I felt as if I really knew these people, their foibles and their charms. Now when I see George W. Bush on television, even when he seems to be doing his best to be bland, I think about specific and well-told anecdotes in Mitchell's book that demonstrate both his tendency to take credit for things he's not responsible for, and his generosity and sense of humor. (I have to take issue with the reviewer who questions the reporting--Mitchell's sources are reliable ones, and it's not clear where the reviewer has found his facts.) I highly recommend this book. Mitchell tells the story with such care and insight that one can imagine what George W. might be like as a president. Not all political writers can tell a story so well, in such elegant and engaging prose.

Where's the beef?
Mitchell chooses to focus on the early years of Dubya, bringing him up as one would in a full length biography from his boyhood years to his formative years in the oil business and stumping for his father's political campaigns. She seems to have an overall favorable impression of Dubya, although she points out the various indescretions along the way, including his fraternity days at Yale.

I suppose this information is helpful to those who want to get a more familiar picture of Dubya, but my interest was in his political aspirations, his first bid for a US Representative seat from Texas (1978) and his successful bid for Governor of Texas (1994). Mitchell gives this period suprisingly short shrift. She also brushes over his oil ventures and the partnership he helped form to buy the Texas Rangers. She is critical of the leading role he assumed in the baseball partnership, and in the Presidential campaigns of his father, but in both cases gives him the benefit of the doubt.

She builds up the relationship between father and son and how Dubya more or less patterned his life after his father, achieving success only after his father had failed in his re-election bid. She notes how Dubya was the natural-born campaigner, able to reach out to the people where his father wasn't, and how his re-affirmation in the church helped him to gain this constituency. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of meat to this book, it capitalized on the attention Bush got after seizing the White House. There have been much more thorough books written since this publication.

Good Overview
This is an interesting book that takes a look at George W. Bush and how his life shaped him all the way up to his running for President. The main premise of the book is that GW is following in his father footsteps out of love and admiration for him and a strong sense of duty. The author also gives us about 50% of the book on the first George Bush and his life story which is needed to show you how close GW follows in his footsteps. I would have liked a bit more detail on the other Bush children though, as the author states that all the children have a desire to follow in the father's footsteps.

I really did not expect this book to provide me all the details it did about the first President George Bush. That was a pleasant surprise for me. We get a good run down of his overall life and some interesting details about his time as VP and President. I also enjoyed reading how he felt a responsibility and loyalty to Nixon enough to take the RNC post. I actually came away with a better understanding of the father as both a person and a leader. I thought some of the insights also made the Bush handling of the 92 race a little clearer for me.

The fist part of the book makes you think this is a love fest book put out by the GW campaign. To be honest, I really did not get that much out of all the details of him in grade school / high school. The book really started to matter to me when the author got into his time in College and later. Once GW started to move on in life the less then faltering facts started to populate the book. Given that that author gives you so many facts, both good and bad, you get a balanced look and the book, in its totality, comes off as a balanced report. I actually did think the author could have played up some of the questions on the Viet Nam issue and the business failures / bailouts to get a more sensational book.

The one area that I would have liked more detail on was the major successes of GW. The book does a good job of running down his less then stellar business career, but I also wanted more detail on his work on his father's campaign. What the book does say on that point makes GW out to be good at the roll he was a playing - I wanted more detail. I also thought we got shortchanged on his run for the Governor and his service in the office. I wanted more detail on his major accomplishments in office. Basically I felt the author rushed this part through to get to print.

This book will not be the end all be all biography of his years before he became President, it is a bit light for that. What the book is though, is a very readable and interesting look at GW and his relationship with his father. If you are interested in either of these two men then this is a good way to learn some facts and not get bogged down in a heavy work.

A Refreshing Account of a Good Man and a Great Family
Don't be misled by the title! I began this book under the assumption that this book was designed to slam the 43rd President of the United States. Surprisingly, it is no such thing, and from my perspective, the book was a wonderful account of "Dubya" and his development as a human being - just like the rest of us. I found it very entertaining and wonderfully written. I recommend it to all people interested in learning about our president, and I implore those who would chastise one political party or another to be as objective as possible when reviewing works such as these. Simply, this book is educational, informative, and best of all, a pleasure to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Foreword by President George Bush. This book is about political pragmatism and presidential leadership. It demonstrates from an historical perspective that political pragmatism, in many cases, is an essential ingredient of effective Presidential leadership. Something in politics that some politicians do not understand, but Presidents Bush, Ford, FDR, Lincoln, and Jefferson did, is that a President is elected to lead the country in the direction which is best for the American people. There are times when historical events force a President to lead the country in a direction supported neither by the general public nor his party and is neither in his nor his party’s immediate political interest. But as President, Abraham Lincoln believed he would serve his party best by serving his country first. In order to prepare the reader to evaluate the leadership of Bush in the 1990 Budget Agreement, and Presidential leadership in general, the first chapter of the book discusses the sources of Presidential power. In doing so, the changes in the role of the office of the Presidency, as dictated by history, are viewed through the actions of earlier Presidents. The following chapters demonstrate great acts of political courage by Presidents who led the country in a direction that was not popularly supported during their Presidency.

The final two chapters show how the Bush Administration established the economic structure which has led to the longest economic expansion of our history. Bush has never been an advocate of high taxes, but in order for the American people to have the opportunity to use their talents and entrepreneurship to work their magic on the economy there are times when courageous leadership and personal sacrifices have to be made. In 1990 President Bush made that sacrifice. Bush had the vision to see the direction the country must move and had the personal character and integrity to lead his party and the country in that direction.

The mark of a great President and a great party is to provide superior and principled leadership and ideas; it is not merely to win an election. Now, as a result of the economic recovery initiated by the 1990 Budget Agreement, Bush has demonstrated that Lincoln was right. A President does serve his party best by serving his country first. ... Read more

Book Description

2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by George Bush, Brent Scowscroft, and Condoleeza Rice

It was one of the pivotal times of the twentieth century - during George Bush's presidency, an extraordinary series of international events took place that materially changed the face of the world.Now, former President Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowscroft, tell the story of those tumultuous years.

Here are behind-the-scenes accounts of critical meetings in the White House and of summit conference in Europe and the United States, interspersed with excerpts from Mr. Bush's diary.We are given intriguing views of world leaders such as Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Thatcher, Kohl, and Mitterand - and witness the importance of personal relationships in diplomacy. There is the dramatic descriptions of how President Bush put together the alliance against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.There are the intricate negotiations leading up to German unification.And there is the sometimes poignant, sometimes grim portrayal of Gorbachev's final years in power.

A World Transformed is not simply a record of accomplishment; Bush and Scowscroft candidly recount how the major players sometimes disagreed over issues, and analyze what mistakes were made.This is a landmark audiobook on the conduct of American foreign policy - and how that policy is crucial to the peace of the world.

A fascinating inside look at great events that deepens our understanding of today's global issues.
... Read more

Reviews (19)

Readable and attention grabbing
President Bush and General Scowcroft give you a sense of the "figure it out as we go" excitement surrounding the events covered in the text: Russia, China, the Persian Gulf and Berlin. The Bush diary entries are heartfelt and moving adding a most personal dimension to the historical text. The interplay between President Bush's and General Scowcroft's entries also keeps the book very, very readable. The format makes the history come alive. Lastly, President Bush's humor comes through the page and adds a human touch to the activities of the principles. As important as were these events in our country's history, the principles working the issues were "regular" people serving the country as best they possibly could.

Surprisingly good and informative
I did not have high expectations for this book, given the dramatically uneven quality of most historical memoirs. But Bush and Scowcroft's book manages to give a fly-on-the-wall view of the truly epoch-making events that took place on their watch. Now it's hard to believe that all this (and more) took place during only one presidential term, but it's clear that in the center of the storm there was a remarkably unified team with the ability to see a few steps ahead -- and even more importantly, understand the consequences of American action. It's not enough for the US to simply follow trends, sabre-rattle, or hew to the middle path. The crucial role of leadership, particularly in the face of dissent, comes through clearly.

The best feature about the book is undoubtedly the unique "three-voiced" way of telling the story -- Bush, Scowcroft, and the 'narrarator' that reflects both their input. I was skeptical that they'd be able to pull this off, but they did. While most historical memoirs either read like something put together by a staff of research assistants (Kissinger and Nixon's books come to mind) or are exercises is score-settling (Brzezinski, to a degree), this one really gives a sense of both mens' attitudes and beliefs -- and they're pretty forthcoming about both their counterparts and their own errors.

Jumpy...skip to better alternatives
I tried to force down "A World Transformed" after reading George H. W. Bush's outstanding letter- and note-based memoir "All the Best." As much as I wanted to like it, I just couldn't trudge through the entire thing. Mostly, it's the format that's at fault. You get Bush's pieces & Scowcroft's pieces interspersed with a 3rd-party disembodied voice attmepting to tie the segments together. I can appreciate that Gen. Scowcroft was a major player and needs his own voice here. But the resulting patchquilt of a book makes it tough on the reader to develop any semblance of continuity.

The other thing is that 'All the Best' introduced you to this charming, delightful, all-too-human side of our 41st President, the charasmatic guy who shows you - through his dedicated letter-writing and human touch - how to build and sustain life-long friendships. I wanted that guy to star in this book. Instead, the guy that wrote "A World Transformed" is a caricature of the tone-deaf (to the US Economy) internationalist we voted out of office in 1992.

A better route than "A World Transformed" would be to pair "All the Best" with David Halberstam's "War in a Time of Peace."

Very Detailed
This book is the step by step discussion of the major foreign affaire issues that took place during first Bush presidency. To say this book is detailed would be to say the Battan Death March was a "tough hike". The book covers the years 1989 to 1991, more specifically (only) the massacre at Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the USSR, and the Gulf War. The book is written in an interesting way - Bush and Scowcroft give their views on each of the issues and then combine for a third voice that gives more of a back ground commentary. We also get some of Bush's "dear diary" entries, which given he wrote the book, I wonder if we saw the original entries. This style does make the book more readable, although Scowcroft's writing could compete in excitement with watching grass grow.

Bush does come across as an excellent statesman in dealing with world leaders. He presents a warm down home type of President that worked with some of the leaders he dealt with. The reader also gets an interesting insight into some of the leaders that Bush dealt with (Hussain, Gorbachev and Kohl) to name a few. In the details of the Gulf War, he also comes off as being a skillful negotiator that kept the war effort together. I think it also shows that to be a good world leader you must develop personal relationships with other world leaders. Bush comes off as such a good foreign policy man that it almost adds to the impression that he had no clue what was going on at home.

Again, the book was full of details - - too much dry detail at times. Some of the talk about how minor issues were resolved could have been left on the cutting room floor and the book would have been the better for it. I did feel that we were short-changed on the Tiananmen Square uprising in China. I also felt that there was just too much time spent on Russia that could have been spent covering the Panama Invasion or the start of the Somalia effort. Overall, the book was very detailed and interesting. As it was almost a memoir, I would look to a few other books on the topics to form of full opion of the issues, as the author's may have been a bit bias.

The definitive account of the end of the Cold War
A vital part of understanding the end of the Cold War. The book is at its most vivid and engaging during it's description of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany and the Gulf War. Bush and Scowcroft tag team throughout the book and complement each other well. Bush's knack for incorporating anecdotes and his personal relationships with other world leaders serves him well here. However, the book is lacking in some areas, and I couldn't quite bring myself to give it 5 stars. While billed as a major part of the book, the section on the Tianamen Square uprising in China was not particularly detailed or illuminating. The book could have benefited from Bush and Scowcroft's perspective on the Panama Invasion, Somalia, and especially on the crucial decisions on US policy towards the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began on Bush's watch. Still, this is an amazing book and it was easy to feel swept up in events that many did not believe we would see happen in our lifetime, myself included. On par with the great books of international relations such as Kissinger's "A World Restored" and Acheson's "Present at the Creation." ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document, covering the life and work of George S(idney) Bush, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 554 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

The story of George H. W. Bush is, to date, a story of his administration, and the Bush circle. It is a story of how he did not really fit in to the increasing muscular conservatism of the sagebrush suburbs and the mythical range. The story of George W. Bush, by contrast, has no such inherent constraints. It is the story of how he built on his father's legacy and connections, even as he distanced himself from the moderate leanings. For all their biographical similarities, the problems faced by Bush the elder and Bush the younger are fundamentally different. It is those differences, some of which are even paradoxical, that comprise the subject of this book. ... Read more