The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment

by Julian E. Zelizer (Editor)

An in-depth look at Bush’s presidency by some of America’s top historians

The Presidency of George W. Bush brings together some of today's top American historians to offer the first in-depth look at one of the most controversial U.S. presidencies. Emotions surrounding the Bush presidency continue to run high―conservatives steadfastly defend its achievements, liberals call it a disgrace. This book examines the successes as well as the failures, covering every major aspect of Bush's two terms in office. It puts issues in broad historical context to reveal the forces that shaped and constrained Bush's presidency―and the ways his presidency reshaped the nation.

The Presidency of George W. Bush features contributions by Mary L. Dudziak, Gary Gerstle, David Greenberg, Meg Jacobs, Michael Kazin, Kevin M. Kruse, Nelson Lichtenstein, Fredrik Logevall, Timothy Naftali, James T. Patterson, and the book's editor, Julian E. Zelizer. Each chapter tackles some important aspect of Bush's administration―such as presidential power, law, the war on terror, the Iraq invasion, economic policy, and religion―and helps readers understand why Bush made the decisions he did. Taking readers behind the headlines of momentous events, the contributors show how the quandaries of the Bush presidency were essentially those of conservatism itself, which was confronted by the hard realities of governance. They demonstrate how in fact Bush frequently disappointed the Right, and how Barack Obama's 2008 election victory cast the very tenets of conservatism in doubt.

History will be the ultimate judge of Bush's legacy, and the assessment begins with this book.

Genres: History, Politics, Presidents, Nonfiction, American History

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful to me as I taught my class on America in the 2000s. I would have liked some additional essays or to have the chapters broken down slightly differently (a chapter on Hurricane Katrina, a chapter on the Bush Administration and LGBT issues, etc.--this information is in the book but organized less legibly than that), but the material in here is engaging, perceptive, and clear-eyed about the recent past.

[Brian O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 2nd Bush Presidency is by far the most interesting to me, partly since I grew up during it but was not politically conscious of it. The other aspect is that hatred of his administration was a bipartisan affair for a while, until Democrats rehabilitated him into a hero of the #Resistance even as he was raising money for Republican Congressional candidates and defending Brett Kavanaugh. It's interesting to see compare and contrast the last Republican president we had with the current one, and theres one commonality that really gets to me.

That similarity is the Republicans party commitment to appointing political hacks to high ranking positions. The obsession with putting partisan loyalty (often signaled by large campaign donations) over any type of expertise is not new to Republican politics. Nearly all of the cabinet members, policy experts, and national security officials knew almost nothing of their jobs going into the White House and were usually only skilled at being friends with Republican politicians or being good on idea. Disturbing to learn about similar stories that we here now of people who shouldnt be at meetings just popping up and pushing a position that would benfit a particular donor or corporation, and people explicitly not caring about if a policy would work and just wanting to get good press. Along with this was an explicit rejection of facts and science, using their distrust of mainstream institutions to justify extremely misguided changes in policy.

[Charles M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be in The Hague right now