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The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America
A critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush reveals how his administration has used half-truths, distortions, and other deceptions to mislead Americans, resulting in failed policies and damaged foreign relations.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2004
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About the author
Eric Alterman
22 books38 followersEric Alterman is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism, a media columnist for the Nation, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and the author of seven books, including the national bestsellers What Liberal Media? and The Book on Bush. He lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 9, 2016
This was, no doubt, a very topical book in 2004 or so. It's a lot less so now, but still interesting. In case you couldn't tell from the title, if you're a fan of George W Bush, don't read this. The authors definitely have an ax to grind about Bush, but they do so with careful research and make valid points. I suspect that most politicians wouldn't stand up to this level of scrutiny.
Some of the things they bring up are really terrifying. It makes me worry about how easily parts of the American political system can be subverted.
While it's mostly of historical interest now, something struck a chord with me. A lot of really questionable things happened because of Bush's ties to big business, and the things he did to support his friends. If that happened on such a large scale... what's going to happen if Trump gets elected?
Something to think about.
The book is a bit dry at points, but an interesting read. Recommended to fans of real world politics.
Some of the things they bring up are really terrifying. It makes me worry about how easily parts of the American political system can be subverted.
While it's mostly of historical interest now, something struck a chord with me. A lot of really questionable things happened because of Bush's ties to big business, and the things he did to support his friends. If that happened on such a large scale... what's going to happen if Trump gets elected?
Something to think about.
The book is a bit dry at points, but an interesting read. Recommended to fans of real world politics.
July 18, 2010
My head is spinning having just finished this book. I imagine that most if not all Presidents have said one thing and done another, but probably not as prodigiously as Bush and as the authors conclude, with forethought.
April 9, 2008
This book will make you sick. It was published before he was re-elected and quite honestly if everyone had read this book there is no way that would have happened. Good hard facts, but it will make you so angry you will be shaking.
July 9, 2019
Doing Machiavelli proud
Of the spate of Bush-bashing books that have recently come out, this is clearly the best. Eric Alterman, who wrote the incisive What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News, and Mark Green, who has penned a number of other books on culture, economics, and politics, rise above the others through sheer thoroughness and a convincing literary style that transcends the merely journalistic.
Alterman and Green begin with an introduction entitled, "The Power of Audacity," which I think sums up the Bush strategy only too well. When Bush was faced with the prospect of lukewarm support for his longing to invade Iraq, he simply came up with the Big Lie. Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that he is planning to use against the United States, and he is in cahoots with Al Qaeda in planning further terrorist attacks. It has been said that if you're going to tell a lie you might as well tell a big one. Bush may even be aware of this quote from the author of Mein Kampf: "The great masses of people...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."
The authors go on to show where George W. learned his audacity. From the Harken Energy insider trading that he got away with, to his irresponsible governorship of Texas, to his cozy relationship with Ken Lay at Enron (which he later denied), to his campaign prevarications about never using the US military for nation building or the No Child Left Behind rhetoric that he failed to support with adequate funding, etc., etc., we are treated to a kind of true crime thriller in which the bad guy is a sort of hail fellow well met (on the wagon of course), a good ole boy who steals from the poor and middle class and gives to the rich.
Alterman and Green have chapters on Bush's "Deja Vu-doo Economics," highlighting his anti-environmental energy policies while he thumbs his nose at pollution control and the development of renewable energy sources. There is information on what the authors call Bush's "large portfolio of antiscience policies." (p. 147) Indeed, as I write this, scores of senators and congressmen are petitioning the president to allow increased stem cell research in an effort to fight Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other scourges of humankind. But Bush continues to play a kind of reincarnation of the ignorant William Jennings Bryan who thought he had defeated "the infidels of evolution at the Scopes Trail of 1925." Also highlighted is the fact that, although the scientific evidence is overwhelming as glaciers melt around the world, Bush continues to deny that the case for global warming has been made and has called for more studies, effectively ignoring the problem.
The authors however don't think that George W. is quite as dumb and self-deceptive as many others believe. They write "we think him dumb like a fox." Nonetheless they charge that "George W. Bush entered office with less understanding of American history and the world than probably any twentieth-century predecessor." Add that to Bush's appalling lack of scientific knowledge and his dismal ignorance about other peoples and other cultures, and we have one of the most ignorant men ever to occupy the White House. Perhaps the double-edged nature of the real George W. Bush can be summed up with these ironic words from neocon strategist Richard Perle, "The first time I met Bush 43, I knew he was different...One, he didn't know very much. The other was that he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much." (p. 3)
All these stupidities and prevarications are explored in full, and more, leaving us to wonder how we got into this mess in the first place. Blame the Supreme Court (and by extension, the previous presidents, especially Reagan and Bush 41 who appointed those justices)? Or blame the media for being too cowardly to expose Bush's lies on the campaign trail? Or blame a semi-educated electorate? Personally I blame the nature of the electoral process in which TV and other advertising can swing an election toward the candidate with the most money.
And what about the consequences of having this guy in office? The really terrible thing about George W. Bush is that he has so often taken the position that truth in politics is the way to go, that he would bring honesty and integrity to a White House soiled by the presence of a philanderer; yet the truth is that the one shameful lie that Clinton told caused no one to die, while the lies of George W. Bush have (at last count) caused over 800 American soldiers to die in Iraq, with thousands injured, to say nothing of tens of thousands of Iraqi dead. And for what? To provide Al Qaeda with a $200-billion recruiting poster?
In other words, not only has George W. Bush mislead the American people, he has caused grievous harm in the process. The massive treasury giveaway to his corporate buddies is something we and our children will pay for again and again over the next couple of decades. The loss of international prestige we suffer because of his misuse of American power and his disregard for the welfare of others is something we will all have to live with for years to come.
It is too bad that the startling information in this book will reach only a very small percentage of the electorate. One hopes, however, that enough of it will trickle down so that the most mendacious president in our history--perhaps even topping Richard Milhouse Nixon in premeditated lies--will be shown the door come November, 2004.
Another good read in a similar vein is The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (2003) by David Corn.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
Of the spate of Bush-bashing books that have recently come out, this is clearly the best. Eric Alterman, who wrote the incisive What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News, and Mark Green, who has penned a number of other books on culture, economics, and politics, rise above the others through sheer thoroughness and a convincing literary style that transcends the merely journalistic.
Alterman and Green begin with an introduction entitled, "The Power of Audacity," which I think sums up the Bush strategy only too well. When Bush was faced with the prospect of lukewarm support for his longing to invade Iraq, he simply came up with the Big Lie. Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that he is planning to use against the United States, and he is in cahoots with Al Qaeda in planning further terrorist attacks. It has been said that if you're going to tell a lie you might as well tell a big one. Bush may even be aware of this quote from the author of Mein Kampf: "The great masses of people...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."
The authors go on to show where George W. learned his audacity. From the Harken Energy insider trading that he got away with, to his irresponsible governorship of Texas, to his cozy relationship with Ken Lay at Enron (which he later denied), to his campaign prevarications about never using the US military for nation building or the No Child Left Behind rhetoric that he failed to support with adequate funding, etc., etc., we are treated to a kind of true crime thriller in which the bad guy is a sort of hail fellow well met (on the wagon of course), a good ole boy who steals from the poor and middle class and gives to the rich.
Alterman and Green have chapters on Bush's "Deja Vu-doo Economics," highlighting his anti-environmental energy policies while he thumbs his nose at pollution control and the development of renewable energy sources. There is information on what the authors call Bush's "large portfolio of antiscience policies." (p. 147) Indeed, as I write this, scores of senators and congressmen are petitioning the president to allow increased stem cell research in an effort to fight Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other scourges of humankind. But Bush continues to play a kind of reincarnation of the ignorant William Jennings Bryan who thought he had defeated "the infidels of evolution at the Scopes Trail of 1925." Also highlighted is the fact that, although the scientific evidence is overwhelming as glaciers melt around the world, Bush continues to deny that the case for global warming has been made and has called for more studies, effectively ignoring the problem.
The authors however don't think that George W. is quite as dumb and self-deceptive as many others believe. They write "we think him dumb like a fox." Nonetheless they charge that "George W. Bush entered office with less understanding of American history and the world than probably any twentieth-century predecessor." Add that to Bush's appalling lack of scientific knowledge and his dismal ignorance about other peoples and other cultures, and we have one of the most ignorant men ever to occupy the White House. Perhaps the double-edged nature of the real George W. Bush can be summed up with these ironic words from neocon strategist Richard Perle, "The first time I met Bush 43, I knew he was different...One, he didn't know very much. The other was that he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much." (p. 3)
All these stupidities and prevarications are explored in full, and more, leaving us to wonder how we got into this mess in the first place. Blame the Supreme Court (and by extension, the previous presidents, especially Reagan and Bush 41 who appointed those justices)? Or blame the media for being too cowardly to expose Bush's lies on the campaign trail? Or blame a semi-educated electorate? Personally I blame the nature of the electoral process in which TV and other advertising can swing an election toward the candidate with the most money.
And what about the consequences of having this guy in office? The really terrible thing about George W. Bush is that he has so often taken the position that truth in politics is the way to go, that he would bring honesty and integrity to a White House soiled by the presence of a philanderer; yet the truth is that the one shameful lie that Clinton told caused no one to die, while the lies of George W. Bush have (at last count) caused over 800 American soldiers to die in Iraq, with thousands injured, to say nothing of tens of thousands of Iraqi dead. And for what? To provide Al Qaeda with a $200-billion recruiting poster?
In other words, not only has George W. Bush mislead the American people, he has caused grievous harm in the process. The massive treasury giveaway to his corporate buddies is something we and our children will pay for again and again over the next couple of decades. The loss of international prestige we suffer because of his misuse of American power and his disregard for the welfare of others is something we will all have to live with for years to come.
It is too bad that the startling information in this book will reach only a very small percentage of the electorate. One hopes, however, that enough of it will trickle down so that the most mendacious president in our history--perhaps even topping Richard Milhouse Nixon in premeditated lies--will be shown the door come November, 2004.
Another good read in a similar vein is The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (2003) by David Corn.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
February 12, 2008
1-8 years ago: I would recommend the audio version, listen to it while driving, travel to a Republican neighborhood, and toss copies out of the window labled 'Jesus/Stock Market says you should listen to this.'
Today: I would recommend the audio version, listen to it while driving, travel to a voting district where McCain leads, and toss copies out of the window labled 'Jesus/Stock Market says you should listen to this.'
This man is an abject failure in every way.
Today: I would recommend the audio version, listen to it while driving, travel to a voting district where McCain leads, and toss copies out of the window labled 'Jesus/Stock Market says you should listen to this.'
This man is an abject failure in every way.
February 4, 2008
I just finished this as a 16-cd audio book. Does that count?
September 6, 2016
Sticking to the facts, and only the facts, this is an indictment of the policy disastors of George Bush's first term of office. Must read for political junkies.
April 26, 2011
Pretty compelling, persuasive and provocative. Made my blood boil. Goes to show you how transparency, freedom of speech and check-and-balance are very important in any democracy.
July 12, 2008
Nothing new for me. Good primer if you wanna catch up on what's transpired over the last 7 years.
January 30, 2010
Illuminating study of the flawed G.W. Bush presidency--the difference between the image and the action. Our country will be digging out of the ruins this man has caused for a long, long time.
February 10, 2010
Great book. I learned that a lot of the stuffI thought is true.
King George 2nd and his buddies should allbe in jail.
King George 2nd and his buddies should allbe in jail.
September 21, 2013
This is one of my top 3 must-read books for understanding the Bush/Cheney era. The other two are "Takeover" by Charlie Savage & "The Book On Bush" by Eric Alterman and Mark Green.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews