Lots of tidbits and analysis of George W. Bush and his influential family, giving a good argument that the Bush family is a dynasty. His father is George Bush Sr., in many offices before becoming president, and grandfather was Prescott Bush. Bush Jr's family legacy may have helped him become president, it sure didn't hurt it.

Phillips brings up the theory of October Surprise, where Bush Sr. allegedly made deals with the Iranians during the embassy hostage crisis. This was to delay their release so as to help elect Reagan over Carter. Reagan was elected, hostages were released when inaugurated, and Bush Sr. became Vice President. He went on to become President. Phillips brings up the interesting point that if this is true, the career of Bush Jr. is owed to an act of deceit.

Of course, there are other reasons for his rise, such as Carters lackluster term, the 60's backlash, implementing the Southern Strategy for the Republican Party that created a white ethnic voter base, the rise of Reaganism, and a shift in foreign policy goals.

It also gives information about the relation of Robert Gates to the Bush family. Bush Jr. after 9/11 signed an executive order limiting public access to presidential papers, and he sent his papers to Texas A&M University, where Gates served as president. Gates was previously CIA director under Bush Sr. This was written about by Phillips in 2004. In 2006 Bush nominated him for Secretary of Defense.

Good resource for anyone wanting to know about the Bush family dynasty.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Political and economics commentator Phillips (The Politics of Rich and Poor, etc.) believes we are facing an ominous time: "As 2004 began, [a] Machiavellian moment was at hand. U.S. president George W. Bush... was a dynast whose family heritage included secrecy and calculated deception." Phillips perceives a dangerous, counterdemocratic trend toward dynasties in American politic-she cites the growing number of sons and wives of senators elected to the Senate as an example. Perhaps less convincingly, he compares the "restoration" of the Bushes to the White House after an absence of eight years to the royal restorations of the Stuarts in England in 1660 and the Bourbons in France in 1814. To underscore the dangers of inherited wealth and power, Phillips delineates a complex case involving a network of moneyed influence going back generations, as well as the Bushes' long-time canny involvement in oil and foreign policy (read: CIA) and, he says, bald-faced appeasement of the nativist/fundamentalist wing that, according to Phillips, is now "dangerously" dominating the GOP. Casting a critical eye at the entire Bush clan serves the useful function of consolidating a wealth of information, especially about forebears George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush. Phillips's own status as a former Republican (now turned independent) boosts the force of his argument substantially. Not all readers will share Phillips's alarmist response to the Bush "dynasty," but his book offers an important historical context in which to understand the rise of George W.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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