Book Description

George Bush and John Kerry, 10th cousins! Bush related to ALL the other presidents. Bush, Kerry and their running mates descend directly from the prophet Mohammed, as do about 70% of all Americans! John Edwards more closely related to Elvis than his cousins Bush, Kerry, and Cheney. Thousands of other fascinating relationships with kings, queens, horse thieves, and just plain folk. ... Read more

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This book presents essays by cabinet members, world leaders, and scholars examining the formation of President George H. W. Bush's character and the factors that influenced his leadership as a legislator, a diplomat, and an American president. ... Read more

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The bestselling author of Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History joins the author of Kennedy and Roosevelt: the Uneasy Alliance to lend their unmistakable voices to the groundbreaking Character Above All audio series with their illuminating examinations of two of America's most recent Presidents.

Recorded live at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, James Cannon and Michael Beschloss continue a series of lectures delivered by a team of historians, biographers and journalists assembled by Robert Wilson to explore the Presidential character. Sharing their insight into the Presidents they have written about, these authors and scholars address the larger issue of the impact of the Presidential character on leadership and the creation of trust.

Cannon tells how Gerald Ford, chosen because of his character to replace the disgraced Agnew and subsequently, Nixon, restored stability to the federal government -- but his pardon of Nixon cost him the presidency. Beschloss shows how George Bush was fated to be President in a Republican party lurching far to his right. He avoided unveiling a domestic vision, absorbing himself in foreign affairs, but when he ran for reelection, the voters decided that character and foreign policy triumphs were not enough.

Character Above All is incomparable audio, crackling with the energy and excitement of a great mind at work and the intellectual urgency befitting a topic of lasting national importance. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a collection of ten perspectives, both personal and professional, about the Bush presidency. It is part of an ongoing series of intensive studies of postwar presidents. The authors served in the Bush administration and possess extensive training and experience in public service and politics. Each provides a unique viewpoint about the Bush administration, its policies, and George Bush himself. The book examines the essential topics that surrounded the Bush presidency: leadership, governance, personnel selection, foreign policy, presidential disability, and the 1992 presidential election. Contributors: John R. Bolton, Edward J. Derwinski, Robert M. Gates, Betty Glad, C. Boyden Gray, Bryce L. Harlow, Burton J. Lee, III, David C. Mulford, Chase Untermeyer, Clayton Yeutter. Co-published with the Miller Center. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Interesting View of a Public Man
My wife bought this book for me several years ago and it has taken me a while to get through it. It's not a thriller that you pick up and just can't put down, but in its own way, it is uniquely interesting.

George H. W. Bush was a prolific letter writer, something that is truly becoming a lost art. It is said that he had the most active rolodex of any man to hold the office of President.

Never known for his skillful speaking ability, Bush preferred to communicate through letters and this work will certainly give historians a unique insight into a fascinating life.

They always say, "like father, like son" and George H. W. Bush's two sons who are active in politics seem to have inherited similar traits. Jeb Bush, the Florida governor, is said to respond to over 100 e-mails personally each day, and George W. Bush, the President, was said to be an e-mail addict. (That is, until he became President and e-mails become subject to subpeonas).

Don't run out and buy this, but if you ever have a down day in the library, pick it up and read a few of the letters. It will probably show you a side of the man that you never knew existed. ... Read more

Book Description

1902. Other volumes in this set include ISBN number(s): 0766143007. Volume 5 of 5. Being the record during twenty years of his supernatural experience. This volume contains Numbers 5660 to the end, and an index of the whole work. Swedenborg's works are some of the most preeminent with regard to spiritual and theological character. This series of volumes reveal the spiritual sense of the Word and its doctrines. ... Read more

Book Description

Most young Americans know that George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, also served as president of the United States. But being president was only one facet of this remarkable man's life. Author Ken Anderson introduces young readers to not only a former president, but also the navy's youngest pilot during WWII, a top-notch baseball player, an innovative oilman, United Nations ambassador and liaison to China, CIA director, congressman, and vice president. The story reveals the triumph and glory, as well as the despair and tragedy, that the former president has experienced in a lifetime of service. ... Read more

Book Description

An illustrated biography of President George W. Bush, following his life from his birth in New Haven, Connecticut in 1946 through the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the War on Terrorism. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The story of George W. Bush up to inaugaration day 2001
"George W. Bush: Our Forty-Third President" certainly brings the Our President series up to date, but it ends early in 2001 after Bush's inauguration. Of course, everything has changed so much since then. Consequently, Ann Graham Gaines's juvenile biography is not about the Bush presidency as much as it is the story of the story of the man who was elected after the controversial 2000 election. In fact, young readers will probably learn more about the electoral process than they will about Bush's political ideology. Compared to other volumes in this excellent series for introducing young students to the lives of the Presidents, this volume is handicapped by the fact that it was published at the start of Bush's presidency. Additionally, the second Bush to serve in the White House has an extremely short political resume, especially in comparison to his father. I thought it was interesting that Gaines calls her subject George W. until he is elected Governor of Texas and then she calls him Bush.

Gaines divides her biography into four chapters: Growing Up, Out into the World, Governor of Texas, and The Race for the Presidency. Pages in each chapter highlight particular topics such as Oil, the Draft, Laura Bush, and the Electoral College. Interesting Facts appear in the margins of many of the pages (e.g., Bush became a multi-millionaire after selling the Texas Rangers and was the first governor of Texas ever elected to two consecutive four-year terms). The back of this book contains a Time Line on Bush's life, a Glossary of mostly political terms, a list of all of Our Presidents and Presidential facts, along with internet sites and books for further information. Young readers will certainly learn about the life of the current president from reading this biography; I am sure they are learning plenty about his presidency from the evening news. Other books in this excellent series can tell them not only about Bush's father, but also John and John Quincy Adams, the first father and son to serve in the White House. ... Read more

Book Description

Prescott Bush is the only person in U.S. history to be father of a U.S. President, grandfather of a U.S. President, and grandfather of a state governor. Duty, Honor, Country is more than a biography of the U.S. Senator from Connecticut, although it is that. It looks at the principles that Prescott Bush passed on like family heirlooms to his five children, including George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States: discipline, duty, ethics, commitment, courage, honor, honesty, loyalty, and responsibility. And it looks at the ways the Bush family legacy has made Prescott Bush, former President George Bush, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush give themselves to public service. "My father believed in the concept of noblesse oblige," said former President George Bush. "You made your money and you had a duty to serve the community or your country."

Written with the encouragement and enthusiasm of former President Bush, the book is a readable story of noblesse oblige in action, from the time Prescott Bush served in town government in Greenwich, Connecticut, to his career as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, to his role in passing far-reaching legislation in the Eisenhower years. It also deals honestly with Prescott Bush's alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations. Half of the book also shows how the commitment to public service was lived out in the lives of Prescott's children and grandchildren, focusing on his son George H.W. Bush and his grandsons George W. Bush and Jeb Bush.

"While there is a natural American enchantment with history as nostalgia," says the author, both Georges and Jeb resist - even detest - the words dynasty and legacy. 'Dynasty means something inherited,' said President George W. 'We inherited a good name, but you don't inherit a vote.'"

Reviews (2)

Time to Stop Kidding Ourselves
Prescott Bush was a just a man, but he was a man who did a lot of very bad things. He administered finances for European shell corporations of the Third Reich before and during the war. His company was seized in 1942 under the trading with the enemy act. He helped Hitler. It's as simple as that.

This man profited from war and the death of other people's children.

Now his son, George HW Bush, is working for defense industry holding company, The Carlyle Group, who reports some of its highest profits ever. His Grandson has overseen the awarding of the largest no bid, no limit contracts in the history of the U.S. handed out to his Vice President's company (excuse me, Mr. Cheney still has options and receives "deferred retirement" checks from Halliburton every year). GW Bush's ratings were at their all time high when he declared war (for those of you who thought the Constitution gave that power to congress, they abdicated over a year ago)on Iraq, allowing him to push through another scurrilous tax cut for himself and his biggest contributors- once again profiting from the death of other people's children.

The seeds, in this case, have not fallen very far from the tree...

Public Relations at its finest.
The United States government confiscation of Prescott Bush's and family assets in 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy Act for dealing with Nazi Germany and running Germany's I. G. Farben inyerests and others in the US should show just how disingenuous the title of this book is and the motives behind it. Public Relations at its finest.
Not the Bush's finest hour. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Sojourners, published by Sojourners on July 1, 2001. The length of the article is 2630 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Terms of Engagement.(child tax credit for low income families)(death of John Alexander)(Obituary)
Author: Jim Wallis
Publication: Sojourners (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2001
Publisher: Sojourners
Volume: 30Issue: 4Page: 7

Article Type: Obituary

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

Price Daniel was elected to more high offices than anyone in Texas history. He was speaker of the Texas House, attorney general, U.S. senator, governor, and supreme court justice. He also served in the cabinet of his Senate colleague, President Lyndon Johnson, who described Daniel as "the soul of honor." A personal friend of almost every president dating back to Harry Truman, Daniel left significant footprints across American history. He was credited with winning the largest states' rights settlement in United States history, was responsible for ridding Texas of organized gambling, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in one of the landmark cases of the civil rights movement, nearly succeeded in his attempt to abolish the electoral college as the method of electing presidents, was on the inside loop of many critical decisions which were made during the Vietnam War, led the largest narcotics investigation in the nation's history and, in the meantime, led in the passage of more legislation than any other governor in Texas history.

The last of old-time Texas governors, the Dayton-born maverick was in his prime with an unlit cigar clamped loosely between teeth and a fitted hat perched atop his head. He was one of several Baylor University graduates to serve as governor. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Unbiased relation
A fifth grader will be tasked to write a book report on some prominent figure from the history of the United States. A Jr. High student will be given the same assignment and asked to elaborate and draw conclusions about that person on their own. A graduating senior will also write their thesis on someone of their choice, but will be forced to check the accuracy of the authors they reference in their bibliography.

Dan Murph's book about Price Daniel is the book that these students will choose. The intimate knowledge that the author has of one "Texas Giant" is remarkable and is not merely a book of words organized into neat little paragraphs. Rather, Dan Murph has provided unbiased insight into one man's life and has clearly shown how one man can make a difference.

What ifs drive more storylines than a Star Trek sequel. The author's description paints a vivid landscape for the reader to draw his/her conclusion with regards to, "What if the Electoral College had been done away with?" Would it change the introduction by George Bush? What if...What if...What if? The answers are within the pages of this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.

Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details and the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; and part a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq six months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6,000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization.

What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room and the Oval Office, and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin.

Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the planning for the war's aftermath. ... Read more

Reviews (185)

Woodward has hit another home run
What a great follow up to Woodward's "Bush at War".
Woodward continues to be effective at keeping his bias in check. He presents the information in a responsible manner, showing great intellectual honesty. Don't expect this book to parrot the typical partisan perspectives - what you will experience is the current administration and world leaders as humans with their convictions and failings.
I knew I wanted to read this book after reading the last Woodward book, but when I saw Woodward being interviewed about "Plan of Attack" by Larry King - and watched him prevent various callers from twisting his words to suit their political purposes, I knew that I had to read this book immediately!

The book held quite a few surprises, getting some intimate revelations from the likes of Ellie Wiesel and Saudi Prince Bandar and others of world reknown. The mechanics of going to war were also unexpected, much of it revolving around General Tommy Franks and his dealings with the Pentagon and the combat institutions.

If you enjoyed "Bush at War", then this book is required reading!

A Gripping Unbiased Stellar Account of The Plan of Attack
Bob Woodward brings you true, unbiased details of Bush's plans, doubts, questions, maneuverings, and money spent to win the war with Iraq and bring Hussein down.

A couple of the most gripping paragraphs from the book shows exactly "how" this was done:
"...I want Hussein's military penetrated. I want the intel service penetrated. I want the security apparatus penetrated. I want tribal networks inside Iraq who will do things for us -- paramilitary, sabotage, ground intelligence. Work the relationship with the Kurds. See if it is feasible to train and arm them so they can tie down Hussein's forces in the north."

"...a team of CIA operatives made the 10-hour overland drive from Turkey into Iraq in a convoy of Land Cruisers, Jeeps and a truck to set up base in Sulaymaniyah in the mountainous Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq. In October, they returned to the same area carrying tens of millions of dollars in $100 bills stored in heavy cardboard boxes. They set up base in a lime-green building that they christened "Pistachio.""

As for the integrity of the author, Bob Woodward is outstanding. His reporting is incredibly detailed, and he brings you tremendous insider information about how this war began, and why.

If you want to know the true ins and outs of this war, this is the most compelling and unbiased approach I have ever seen. Outstanding Work!

Correcting the myths
A previous review states the oft-repeated lie that Joe Wilson "disproved" that Saddam tried to buy uranium:

"For example, when former ambassador and Africa expert Joseph C. Wilson is sent to investigate the rumor that Saddam had tried to buy weapons-grade nuclear fuel from an African nation, he comes back from the war-torn continent with the unambiguous conclusion that the rumor was unfounded."

Now, in fact, we know that Joe Wilson was partisan liar, and Bush was telling the truth all along: Multiple intelligence agencies and sources have been reviewed, the evidence confirmed (eg the Butler report) and determined that it was well-founded: Saddam was indeed tryng to buy uranium from Niger.

Lesson? Dont buy Joe Wilson's book. And dont believe the phony mantra of him and others on the left, bashing Bush as a liar.

More and more facts show that in fact Bush acted in good faith. Indeed "Plan of Attack" clearly backs up that thesis. This was about assessing and defeating a threat to United States. Nothing about oil, kowtowing to saudis, or some neocon rule the world plot (sorry mikey moore you're full of it). Just Bush and his team trying to protect national security in a post 9/11 world, with many uncertainties and assumptions that necessarily entails.

So the real lying partisan liars are in the anybody but Bush brigade yelling 'Bush lied'. They are wrong.

Woodward's work? It's a good book. Dunno if its a "slam dunk" though. :-) Take some of the 'private conversations' with grain of salt.

Good read
I'm surprised by the other reviews for this book. After reading it, I got a much better idea of why the decision was made to go to war with terrorists and to start with Iraq. This book made my support for President Bush and the decision to go to war even stronger than it already was. Anyone reading this, even those of a liberal bent, should be able to see how this book added strength to the case to go to war. If they can't see it, then they're obviously those liberals who are blinded by hatred, who wouldn't see somethign if it was right in front of them, and, sad to say, nothing much can be done for those types. The fact that people in the administration had different ideas about various aspects isn't some staggering new invention. People do that in any administration, business, or group. The fact that those who pressed to be more cautious, then turned around and agreed with the final decision, shows how well they can work together for the protection of us all. The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 is because Woodward has a tendency to write one thing and then say anouther when he's in an interview discussing the book. If he actually had written this book the way he makes it sound like when he discusses it, then I wouldn't have liked this book as much as I did.

LIKE WATCHING THE MAKING OF SAUSAGE
"Plan of Attack" is as comprehensive an account as we're going to get during our lifetimes (those of us in late middle age or better, anyway) about the events, opinions, arguments, disagreements, office politics, ideology, plans and preparation that led up to the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq in March of 2003.

Reading this book is a bit like watching sausage being made; it's a tad revolting. After finishing Bob Woodward's opus I walked away with the troubling impression that G.W. Bush is not the strong leader he keeps telling us he is. He's more the spoiled, insensitive, self-centered, stubborn, hyperactive little boy with attention deficit disorder who likes to play cowboys and indians.

Bush is often out of touch and out of the loop, partly because of his inability to grasp complex (and sometimes even simple) issues and partly because of the control, by the people who surround him, of the flow of information that actually reaches the president. There's a line about Colin Powell's observation that no decion gets made until the president has met alone with Vice President Dick Cheney. This and other parts of the narrative serve to raise questions about who is really in charge in this administration. (Members of the 9/11 commission have recently expressed serious doubt that Cheney's order to shoot down hijacked airliners that day actually came from the president, as Bush and Cheney both testified in their joint closed-door session with the panel. A major reason for their disbelief is that the commission found no record of this alleged Bush-Cheney communication, though established protocols require that such contacts be recorded).

Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, are the lone voices of reason straining to be heard above the cacophony of trigger-happy madmen. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz comes up with a plan to overrun and seize Iraq's southern oil fields, with the expectation that the Iraqis will rally around U.S. forces and rise up to overthrow Saddam's government...the Bay of Pigs assumption. Powell, shaking his head, keeps saying "this is lunacy". In his opinion, "it was one of the most absurd, strategically unsound proposals he had ever heard."

General Tommy Franks was initially another figure who questioned the idea of going into Iraq. When asked to develop a war plan for invading that country, he was incredulous. They were in the midst of one war, Afghanistan, and they wanted detailed planning for another, Iraq? "Goddam," Franks said, "what the f___ are they talking about?"

But the headlong rush to war, vigorously promoted by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, (Saudi prince/embassador) Bandar, and others, picked up momentum and reached the point of no return. Despite clear indications that a resolution to invade Iraq would not pass muster in the U.N. Security Council, and despite the overt opposition to the adventure by France, Russia, Germany, and a host of other countries, Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state.

It's my impression that there's a subtle undertow, barely a hint, that sinister forces might have been at play in Bush's decision to go forward with the invasion. For example, when former embassador and Africa expert Joseph C. Wilson is sent to investigate the rumor that Saddam had tried to buy weapons-grade nuclear fuel from an African nation, he comes back from the war-torn continent with the unambiguous conclusion that the rumor was unfounded. Based on Wilson's report, a line referring to Saddam's attempt to buy fissionable materials is deleted from an early draft of the president's upcoming State of the Union address.

But the sentence mysteriously reappears in the final speech that makes it to the teleprompter for Bush to read to the world. (Wilson later [July 6, 2003] published an article in the New York Times titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa", which opened with the question "Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?" As punishment for daring to speak out, Wilson's wife was "outed" as a covert CIA agent, effectively ending her career and placing her life, and the lives of her overseas contacts, in jeopardy.)

It's hard to fathom how Bob Woodward managed, with the cooperation of this famously secretive administration, to gather all the intricate details revealed in his fascinating tome. The book is replete with candid takes of the principals and other participants in this not-very-pretty story of how the U.S. got into the sticky, bloody mess from which it may never completely extricate itself. I suspect that Woodward exploited the good will he created when he presented Bush, et al, as couragious heros in his previous book, "Bush at War". The cynic in me says that he wrote that book in order to gain the confidence of the Bush gang, laying the groundwork that would allow him the access to people, documents, and other resources essential to the preparation of the current book, a hard-hitting indictment of a dysfunctional administration.

"Plan of Attack" is a very instructive must-read for those interested in government, politics, history, organizational behavior, military strategy, international relations, diplomacy, covert operations, hanging with the big dogs, the making of sausage, and perhaps most importantly, the importance of voting intelligently.

*** ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

Nothing New
I read this book and I was just left wondering where the new material was.This book just goes over some general things that everyone knows.We need something a little meatier.Barbara can really be a great leader when she wants to.I just wish she didn't leave these books up to other people such as biographers and ghost writers.

Nothing New
Having read many articles and several books, there was nothing new in this book for the general reader. Lacked substance also.

OK for the general fan, but not much for the historian
I call it Clementine Churchill (or if you prefer, Denis Thatcher) Syndrome: spouses of the great and powerful frequently haven't had lives as newsworthy as that of their more famous partner. And as Barbara Bush herself has noted, it's "fate and an extraordinary husband" (p. 141) that have made her part of history. However, Barbara Bush has always been a popular individual -- sometimes much more so than her husband. And for casual fans looking for an inoffensive and readable popular biography, this work by Pamela Killian more than fits the bill.

On its own terms, it does have its weak points. How much weight you choose to give them depends on what exactly you're looking for, I suppose. For example, there's no evidence Mrs. Bush herself was interviewed for this book -- although according to the acknowledgements some current and former staff-members and friends were. Many of the quotes, and much of the other information, are recycled from newspaper coverage and other media sources (including, interestingly, an episode of the A&E cable network's "Biography" program). Author Kilian also gives a disturbing amount of emphasis to those notoriously fickle (as well as politically tendentious) "polls of presidential historians."

There are also a couple of errors (arguably minor) that need to be pointed out, including a misquotation of Al Gore's famous "no controlling legal authority" phrase (p. 217) and an odd mention of the House of Representatives' "interference" with the election of 1824 (there was no "interference," just the process laid out in the Constitution).

Where I thought this biography particularly shined, though, was in the discussion of Barbara Bush's 1990 commencement address at Wellesley College (pp.146-53). Some feminists in the graduating class had objected to Mrs. Bush's presence, on the grounds that she had no individual achievements and was only being honored because of whom she was married to. Mrs. Bush handled that issue well at the time, and Kilian does the same here. I found this chapter, in many ways, the defining point of the book, giving testimony (if any were needed) to the value of the life Barbara Bush has led.

While not terribly in depth or deeply psychologically revealing, this biography does give a good picture of a woman who, in my opinion, justifies the high regard in which she is still held by so many people. Think what you will about her husband's and/or son's politics, it's harder not to like the Silver Fox, as this title helps make clear. ... Read more