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Cronies: How Texas Business Became American Policy-- and Brought Bush to Power
No other province holds more political and economic power than the Lone Star State. Two of the last three American presidents—and three of the last eight—have been Texans. Each of them got to the White House by exploiting a network of money and power that no other state can match.
In Cronies , renowned investigative reporter Robert Bryce illuminates how Texas turned its vast energy resources into political power, and how a small group of Texas corporations, lawyers and politicians use that power to protect and defend their own economic interests. Through an absorbing narrative that moves from the days of the oil boom, through the rise and reign of LBJ, to today, Bryce profiles the Texans and the Texas corporations who have wielded—and continue to wield—great power in America's domestic and foreign policy, including the Bushes, James A. Baker III, Halliburton, Baker Botts, Ray Hunt, Bell Helicopter, and more. He shows how massive transfers of wealth from the rest of the country to Texas have allowed the state to prosper. Cronies demonstrates how George W. Bush is the living embodiment of Texas' crony networks, and how those networks continue to play critical roles in the 21st century.
Distinguished by the same crack investigative skills and colorful storytelling that reviewers loved in Pipe Dreams , Cronies not only explains the astonishing rise of Texas; it offers a timely, provocative new way to look at American politics and our deadly entanglements in Iraq.
In Cronies , renowned investigative reporter Robert Bryce illuminates how Texas turned its vast energy resources into political power, and how a small group of Texas corporations, lawyers and politicians use that power to protect and defend their own economic interests. Through an absorbing narrative that moves from the days of the oil boom, through the rise and reign of LBJ, to today, Bryce profiles the Texans and the Texas corporations who have wielded—and continue to wield—great power in America's domestic and foreign policy, including the Bushes, James A. Baker III, Halliburton, Baker Botts, Ray Hunt, Bell Helicopter, and more. He shows how massive transfers of wealth from the rest of the country to Texas have allowed the state to prosper. Cronies demonstrates how George W. Bush is the living embodiment of Texas' crony networks, and how those networks continue to play critical roles in the 21st century.
Distinguished by the same crack investigative skills and colorful storytelling that reviewers loved in Pipe Dreams , Cronies not only explains the astonishing rise of Texas; it offers a timely, provocative new way to look at American politics and our deadly entanglements in Iraq.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Robert Bryce
21 books75 followersRobert Bryce has written three books, his newest being Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence. He was hailed as a 'visionary' by the New York Times, a fact he often repeats to his children and his dog, Biscuit.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 17, 2018
As this book describes, George H. W. Bush got rich in the oil industry and thereafter became a shill for it. His main purpose in life, the author contends, was to help line the pockets of his Texas oil-tycoon cronies. As a side note, the Bush family lawyers, Baker Botts in Houston, are accurately depicted in the book and movie “The Firm” by John Grisham. All in all, the media lovefest for Bush was designed to show that, by unspoken comparison, President Trump is a total asshole.
July 4, 2020
Solid four-star book. Wasn't much new here to me other than one thing, and that's the amount of duplicity long-time Texas oil industry comment-Rolodexer for media Amy Myers Jaffe has engaged in.
Second? The duplicity of Jim Baker is not new, but a couple of specific instances of it, like lying that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company was NOT a Baker Botts client, were new.
Second? The duplicity of Jim Baker is not new, but a couple of specific instances of it, like lying that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company was NOT a Baker Botts client, were new.
September 7, 2011
I'm not sure what's more frightening, the info inside these pages, or the fact that society seems content to remain blissfully ignorant of it?
March 26, 2021
I should have read this book a LONG time ago. But there is still a good history lesson to be had from reading it now. Well researched arguments made by Mr. Bryce.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews