The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America Review
The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America Overview
Not since the heyday of Richard Nixon has there been a president more controversial and polarizing than George W. Bush. From his arrival in office through what many still regard as one of the most flagrant miscarriages of electoral justice in modern history to the long road to Iraq, Bush has been vilified by liberals as ardently as he has been embraced by the neoconservatives who have been the driving force of his administration. Both Eric Alterman and Mark Green are known for their doggedness in researching the media and political figures, and what they discover in the case of Bush is a consistent pattern of double standards, misrepresentation, and contradictions. The Book on Bush methodically critiques administration policy from the standpoint of its truthfulness as well as its merit, with the characteristic wit of both writers.
The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America Specifications
While other liberal-minded books, written by everyone from documentary filmmakers to political strategists to comedians, have been broadly critical of the entire early 21st-century conservative universe, Eric Alterman and Mark J. Green have narrowed their focus to the man living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And unlike some of their contemporaries, they choose to largely eschew the clever metaphors and whimsical storytelling to get right at their pointed criticisms of George W. Bush, whom they accuse of being less than honest with the American people while serving the interests of large corporations, the religious right, and neoconservative ideologues. Such charges, by themselves, are so commonplace by this point as to be unremarkable but Alterman and Green provide voluminous, detailed research and come at the case with the vigor of prosecuting attorneys certain of a defendant's guilt or maybe a pair of exceptionally ambitious graduate students ready to present a final dissertation. They contrast sections of Bush's public statements, especially campaign rhetoric, that seem to strike a centrist, conciliatory tone with evidence of his actions that veer hard right and contradict the very things he had said. Some of Bush's words come off more as simple talking points on complex issues than outright deception, and the authors do stop short of calling Bush a liar, but even in these situations, the president still comes off as either out of touch or disingenuous. And though some of their supporting material comes from opinion pieces in publications like the New Republic, serving more to echo the authors' perspective than document it, there's plenty more from objective sources and raw factual data. Liberals will find plenty in The Book on Bush to arm them in arguments against conservatives and they'll have the evidence to make their case. --John Moe
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