The Presidency of George H. W. Bush: Second Edition, Revised

by John Robert Greene

Shortly after George H. W. Bush lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton in 1989, John Robert Greene's verdict on the 41st president of the United States was that he "brought no discredit to the office" and "Bush was both patient and prudent. . . mak [ing] few mistakes." In the years since the release of Greene's profile of the senior Bush, deemed by Publishers Weekly, "the essential introduction to Bush's abbreviated, but still consequential, tenure in office," a wealth of materials about Bush's presidency has become available, even as distance has sharpened our perspective on the Bush years. In this significantly expanded second edition of "The Presidency of George H. W. Bush," Greene takes full advantage of newly released documents to revisit Bush's term, to consider his post-presidency accomplishment, and to enhance and clarify our understanding of his place in history.
Such milestones as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the fall of the Soviet Union, the savings and loan crisis, and the transition to the Clinton administration receive renewed and far more detailed treatment here, as do the ramifications of George H. W. Bush's positions and policies. Greene also devotes ample attention to Bush's post-presidency, including his relationship with his son, President George W. Bush, as well as the development of his close friendship with Bill Clinton. The elder Bush emerges from this reappraisal as a considerably more activist president, with a more activist administration, than was previously assumed. Greene's concise and readable account drawing on the contents of the bush Library, the papers of James A. Baker III, and personal interviews, shows us the 41st president--and thus an important chapter in American history--in a new and more revealing light.

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

John Robert Greene is an American historian who is the Paul J. Schupf Professor, History and Humanities, the director of the Social Science Program, and the College Archivist, at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read "Dutch" and Edmund Morris is as tough act for this author to follow as was Reagan for George Bush. I was never a fan of Reagan, but he certainly had and still has a loyal following. Both Bush and this book were a bit less inspiring. I was amazed to read in the Acknowledgements that Greene spent ten years researching and writing this 186 page book. Foote had published the first 2000 pages of his Civil War opus in that amount of time. The book is a quick read (a Sunday afternoon will do) and does have some interesting tidbits. For example, I had forgotten or never knew how the military controlled the news reporting from Desert Storm. The repeated TV images like that of the smart bomb inserted into a building's airshaft left me with memories of ultra-precise bombing, but apparently that was less than candid information. Nearly 1/2 missed their targets completely. 23% of the dead American soldiers were killed by "friendly fire". I suspect that a better bio of Bush has been written, but I doubt if the subject is worth the bother.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for the most part -- I spotted a couple of errors, but otherwise a fair assessment of the Bush Sr. presidency.