Bush Books

I read this book for a graduate class in American history.
George Bush is something of an enigma to the American public. His privileged life afforded him the opportunity to pursue a career that was both rewarding and volatile. His passion for government was profiled in his commitment to reach the presidency. Once he achieved that goal he worked fervently to make as many positive changes and improvements for the nation as possible.

George Bush had big shoes to fill after Ronald Reagan completed his two terms as President. Reagan cut taxes with his "Supply Side Economics" and created the greatest buildup of arms in American history. The 1980's turned into an age of entrepreneurism, cultural voyeurism, narcissism, and anxiety. Although President Reagan developed policies that were considered to be "revolutionary" he was not without inaccuracy. He stumbled in the Iran Contra affair by allowing White House aides to sell arms to Iran in order to gain support of Iran in the release of American hostages that were being held in Lebanon. While Reagan would be a tough act to follow, he left an unstable economy and social infrastructure behind.

While President Bush had to suffer the consequences of the Iran-Contra affair, he promoted ethics throughout his administration. When he first got into office he put the "Scrub" Team" together which was responsible for "scrubbing" all potential appointments to make sure their loyalties were to Bush and not Reagan. Bush's eldest son, George W. chaired the group (46). The New York Times nicknamed the Bush administration "The Untouchables" after the incorruptible team of federal agents who chased gangsters during prohibition because of Bush's promise to make his administration more ethical than Reagan's (54).

When Bush began his presidency he knew he had to pick his battles. He was successful in doing so in that he vetoed 44 bills and 43 were upheld in four years (62). He addressed the difficult and important issues of abortion, education, and drug policy. He also had to compensate for Reaganomics which left him with a budget deficit that hindered his administration from instituting new policies and programs due to insufficient funds. The deficit was also responsible for him compromising the one big pledge he made during his campaign "no new taxes". This would playa major role in his next election.

President Bush's stronger attribute was foreign policy. He had agreed with little of Reagan's foreign policy. An example of this was his relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev of the U.S.S.R.; however, Bush chose to apply the brakes to the Soviet-American relationship, pull over to the side of the road, and study the map for a while." (90) Although Bush moved at his own pace, he stepped up the pace after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Due to the handling of the massacre by the People's Republic of China, Bush imposed sanctions on the country. President Bush's pace was not an issue when DESERT SHIELD was instituted. Saddam Hussein overthrew the emir of Kuwait which gave him control of 21 percent of the world's oil reserves. Bush was concerned with protecting Saudi Arabia because if Hussein took them that would give Iraq 40 percent of the world's known oil reserves (115). Economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq in order to obtain cooperation from Hussein, but Bush was never convinced they would work.

The U.S. also needed help in financing the war. Bush turned to the coalition for help. It cost $28.9 million a day to keep troops in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) paid for 62% of the costs. Germany, Japan and Korea paid 26%. Over 70% of the foreign commitment came in the form of cash (118). President Bush formed a coalition and declared war on Iraq on January 16, 1991 which became known as DESERTSTORM. Before Bush declared war he insisted on the backing of Congress because he did not want Hussein thinking he was just a "trigger happy president" but that the whole nation was behind his decision (126). The press referred to the war as the "Nintendo war" because of the new technology that was used (132). The biggest question that arose from the Gulf War was when President Bush would end the war (135). The American people never had a doubt as to what the outcome of the war would be. Patriotism was revived due to the Gulf War which ended February 27, 1991.

When it was time for re-election President Bush had quite a few obstacles against him. The most frequently asked question about the Bush presidency is "How could he have lost the presidency when he won the war?" (151) The consensus for the main reason was his inability to keep his promise of not raising taxes. Additionally, his re-election campaign was anything but successful. Bush lost Atwater to a terminal brain tumor and the Republican National Convention never recovered. Due to a lack of campaign funds, Bush had to spend his time fund-raising instead of making appearances. Bush also had to endure the media circus of Clarence Thomas being charged with sexual harassment. Bush also received pressure from his administration to drop Gorbachev and support Boris Yeltsin. Bush upheld his beliefs but received great animosity from the conservatives.

The recession arrived in August 1990 (161). Bush decided the best way to deal with it would be to close a number of military bases. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) was formed which is an independent commission that critiques the list of bases being marked for extinction by the secretary of defense (163). Bush approved some thirty closings which again left him incredibly unpopular with the nation. Bush's decisions on these issues did not increase his popularity and with the election getting closer his opponents were looking more appealing to the American public. Bush's reelection campaign had many problems in and of itself. It lacked focus, discipline, and conceptual strategy. The reason for most of this was that Bush had no one running his campaign that had any previous experience with national campaigns (176). George Bush was best known for his patience and prudence throughout his presidency. Although he has become known as the lido-nothing" president to most critics, Bush accomplished a number of major feats in a short four year term. He had weak areas while holding office; however, when his term was complete he was able to leave a more stable nation to his successor than he had inherited from his predecessor (186).

As a graduate student, I recommend this book for anyone interested in Bush, American History, and Cold War History.

The title of this book is "The Presidency of George Bush." Needless to say, to adequately cover even the most insignificant president you need more than the paltry 200 pages that this book provides. So if Mr. Greene believes that he has written a major book on the Bush administration, he falls well short. Nevertheless, perhaps Mr. Greene sought to write a book offering fewer facts but more analysis. In that case, he also falls a bitshort. The final result is a hybrid of newspaper reporting, old and new facts, and a sprinkle of original analysis. It makes for a repectable work that is worth reading. Mr. Greene's final analysis of the Bush presidency is a positive one. He finds that "Poppy's" virtues of prudence and patience worked well in dealing with foreign countries and in conducting the Persian Gulf War. While admitting a dearth of domestic accomplishments, the author does praise Bush for the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act, both passed in 1990. One thing that stands out in particular is the author's emphasis on Bush's charcater. He sees the ex-president as a genuinely warm friend and gentle family man. This is absolutely true. In comparison to the other post-WWII presidents, George Bush probably would be the one you would most want to be your father. Nevertheless, I do not see why this quality should be an end in and of itself. This goes back to the recent debate over the role that character has for those who preside in the Oval Office. I do not believe that private values are an end. Instead, they should be a means to articulating public values. This lesson has been imprinted on Bill Clinton. Bush was a decent man but his public values were either a failure or more likely, unknown, because he never artiuclated them. The "vision thing" plagued him throughout his public life and his four years on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue did not awaken him to this essential aspect of any great presidency. There are three significant features when looking at the Bush presidency. First was the ending of the Cold War. Bush is given credit for this development even by many of his critics. But let's not forget that in 1989 when Bush took the oath of office, the die had been cast. The USSR was dying of a terminal disease. Bush largely sat and observed. He does deserve credit for not tipping the boat but that's hardly a compliment to build a legacy on. Bush deserves real applause for his handling of Germany's reuinfication. It was there that the Loan Star Yankee took an active and positive role. But should we ignore his appeasement of China following the Tiananmen Square masacre or his shiflessness on the ethnic cleasness in Yugoslavia? Its a mixed record. The second key issue was the Persian Gulf War. And clearly Bush's orchestartion of the allied campaign against Iraq was nearly flawless. But for every compliment that Bush receives here, he deserves criticism for his policies toward Iraq immediately prior to and following Deset Storm. With a little less prudence and more decisiveness, we could have either avoided the invasion of Kuwait completely or is so, removed Saddam Hussein from power following the war. The third issue was Bush's undoing: his lack of a domestic agenda of any shape or form. In 1989 it is true that he faced severe limitations when working with the legislative branch. But after the Gulf War he could have gotten a 30-acre personal mansion from Congress if he requested it. Instead, he rested on his own laurels, convinced that there was nothing he could do to help an American public, hurt and restless in the midst of an economic recession. He chose to do nothing and worst of all, he seemed blind to the concerns of his citizens. Who will ever forget the supermarket scanner? The result was a re-election fight that ended with 62% of the voting public unmoved by his pleas for a second chance. George Bush is a good man and he was not a bad president, per se. But he obviously had serious shortcomings as both a president and a public leader.

As a technical support representative for Intuit for the last two years, I supported Quicken 5 through Quicken 99. Quicken 5 was the last program to have a manual with the program. From Quicken 6 on to the current version, the manual has been incorporated in the now extensive Help Menu.

Customers were always asking me if I knew of a good reference book for Quicken. As one customer told me, "I like to take my software manuals to bed to read. Have you ever tried taking your laptop to bed to read?"

Since I left Intuit to privately consult users of Quicken and TurboTax, I have been looking for a few good reference books to recommend to my clients.

Quicken 98 Bible is a quick reference with it's comprehensive table of contents, good index, a highlighted chapter title on the left page, a highlighted subchapter title on the right page, with various tips, notes, cross-references and cautions.

I was glad to see the Caution icon in Chapter 13,Managing Files. Some new and older users of Quicken fail to understand the need to backup to another source other than the harddrive.

My only complaint is that the caution is not direct enough. I would have put a Warning icon and something as direct as " If you do not backup to another source, such as a floppy disk,you will loose all of your transactions you have entered. In other words, your year's worth of data will be gone if and when your harddrive needs to be reformated."

Other than the mild-mannered Caution icons, I would recommend this book for those who need a quick reference at their desk or for those who love a good read at bedtime.

It covers Quicken98, Quicken Delux, Quicken Suite which includes Family Lawyer, and Quicken Home and Business.

As a technical support representative for Intuit for the last two years, I supported Quicken 5 through Quicken 99. Quicken 5 was the last program to have a manual with the program. From Quicken 6 on to the current version, the manual has been incorporated in the now extensive Help Menu.

Customers were always asking me if I knew of a good reference book for Quicken. As one customer told me, "I like to take my software manuals to bed to read; have you ever tried taking your laptop to bed to read?"

Since I left Intuit to privately consult users of Quicken and TurboTax, I have been looking for a few good reference books for Quicken to recommend to my clients. Quicken 98 Bible is a quick reference with it's comprehensive table of contents, good index, with a highlighted chapter title on the left page, a highlighted subchapter title on the right page, with various tips, notes, cross-references and cautions.

I was glad to see the Caution icon in Chapter 13,Managing Files. New and older users of Quicken sometimes fail to understand the need to backup to another source other than the harddrive.

My only complaint is that the caution is not direct enough. I would have put a Warning icon and something as direct as " If you do not backup to another source, such as a floppy disk, you will loose all of your transactions you have entered. In other words, your year's worth of data will be gone if and when your harddrive needs to be reformatted."

Other than the mild-mannered cautions, I would recommend this book for those who need a quick reference at their desk or for those who love a good read at bedtime.

It covers Quicken98, Quicken Deluxe, Quicken Suite which includes Family Lawyer, and Quicken Home and Business.

Not a bad book for new Quicken users, although it reads more like a software manual. Provides some useful tips on how to get more out of Quicken besides using it as just a glorified chequebook, but there aren't any deep secrets about Quicken to be discovered in this book. At least not for what I use it for anyway. Like most of IDG's other books, it's big, easy to read and easy to follow along. Probably worth getting if you're a new Quicken user. Veteran users probably won't get much out of it.

Vannevar Bush, an "engineer's engineer" and early pioneer in computer development, was President Roosevelt's science advisor during World War II. He served brilliantly in that task, and among other activities set up the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Asked by President Roosevelt to prepare a plan for the postwar deployment of science for peace (some say he "engineered" that request from Roosevelt) he published (after Roosevelt's death) Science: The Endless Frontier. In this book he advocated for a National Science Foundation and a program for funding of basic research in leading U.S. universities. A well-known and respected figure, Bush (no relation to the presidential Bush family) Bush politicked vigorously and eventually gained a watered-down version of the National Science Foundation. His curious insistence that research support avoid applied science or practical ends became firmly established, however.

The new science paradigm (which I describe in a book to be published this year by the Springer Co) contributed to a huge boom in U.S. academic research departments. An unanticipated result was the massive proliferation of disciplinary research and publication (the "publish or perish syndrome"), which might use real problems of society as a subject of inquiry, but which became largely circulated within academic "invisible colleges". Bush himself became disillusioned with the results of his initiatives by the 1960s.

Since then the main Bush thesis, that basic research will spur technical innovation and have other valuable benefits for society has been countered by events and many studies but still has strong influence on U.S. academic and Congressional funding policies. Its worst effect, the placing of a stigma on applied research and development is gradually being changed, but has had serious indirect effects in causing some of the nation's best talent to become locked in the ivory tower.

In short, this book by Bush shows both the enormous potential influence of ideas on society - but also the dangers of hubris. Zachary points out that there was already plenty of evidence in the 1940s that the "basic research leads to applications" linear thesis was wrong. In fact,19th Century German science - which created whole new subfields of chemistry in the course of searching for new synthetic pharmaceutical products, dyes, and useful inorganic compounds, had shown that the opposite to the linear basic research concept was more valid. Bush's influence imposed an unwise policy on the nation.

This book is on a list of most influencial Higher Educational books. It is an interesting read, at least it was for a required book, but it stands out as being too outdated to appreciate. It is a proposal for a new scientific foundation in the united states after WWII. One of the requests for students recieveing funds is "persons who receive benefits under the plan should be selected solely on the basis of merit, without regard to sex, race, color, or creed." That and, "such ravaging diseases as yellow fever, dysentery, typhus, tetanus, pneumonia, and meningitis have been all but conquered by penicillin." You will gain a better grasp of historical change over the years from the concept of war to the benefits of supporting education. Overall, you will not leave with a new insight for science or higher education as you will for a better understanding of past cultural mentalities.

"Lively characters in a leisurely read, with a subtle plot and succulent setting. Excellent!" ~ Jillian Dagg, Author of Racing Hearts, Avalon Books

Cheryl Cooke Harrington has an incredibly fantastic way with words! Of course, you might too, if you took the admonishment to "write what you know" so seriously that you'd learn to pilot a Cessna in order to write about flying!

As the publisher of The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family's Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation, I was absolutely amazed at the accuracy of Mr. Weinberger's perceptions of the Bush administration, it's cabal of evildoers, and the true conditions surrounding the war in Iraq. I am currently working on a book on the Bush administration and in the past three years, I have read nearly 200 books, and countless magazine articles and stories, and I must say, with all due apologies to other authors, that What Happened Here is the best book I have read in this genre. The simplicity and emotion with which Mr. Weinberger has detailed his observations are what make this book what it is: a great piece of literature that must be read by everyone, everywhere.

I read Weinbeger on Sontag and found his review of her work -- irritating and actually quite bitchy. I'm not some great fan of hers -- but just found his NYR overview of her oeuvre a most appalling example of self referential bitchiness masking as brilliant insider insight. I googled him and found out that -- surprise -- he wrote that very elegant essay against the US invasion of Iraq. So I ponder how to square the two Elitots....

Randy Graham's dry wit and zany humor are heartwarming and endearing. You won't be able to put down this book until read from start to finish the trials and tribulations of Herbert as he transitions from graduate student to professor, from husband to divorced male, and from naive to worldly. He learns about the wide world of swinging, and the erotic scenes in this book are sure to please. Herbert is the typical insensitive narcissicist (we've all known someone like him) but he's occasionally likeable as well. With a writing style kind of like Philip Roth, Randy Graham paints an entertaining and sometimes sardonic picture of academic life inside the hallowed halls of college education and teaching. You'll also want to read the sequel, entitled Quak, Quak, to follow Herbert into the next phase of his life after Beneath the Gown.

It was interesting to read about the political views the author encountered during her travels through Africa. The fact that this trip was taking place during the start of the war on Iraq made the views even more interesting. This travel adventure story is political, yet witty, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

4 stars

This is an excellant book for those interested in quality photographic reproduction. The layout and design are well done and the subject matter well covered.

My wife bought this book for me several years ago and it has taken me a while to get through it. It's not a thriller that you pick up and just can't put down, but in its own way, it is uniquely interesting.

George H. W. Bush was a prolific letter writer, something that is truly becoming a lost art. It is said that he had the most active rolodex of any man to hold the office of President.

Never known for his skillful speaking ability, Bush preferred to communicate through letters and this work will certainly give historians a unique insight into a fascinating life.

They always say, "like father, like son" and George H. W. Bush's two sons who are active in politics seem to have inherited similar traits. Jeb Bush, the Florida governor, is said to respond to over 100 e-mails personally each day, and George W. Bush, the President, was said to be an e-mail addict. (That is, until he became President and e-mails become subject to subpeonas).

Don't run out and buy this, but if you ever have a down day in the library, pick it up and read a few of the letters. It will probably show you a side of the man that you never knew existed.

The bond between dog and man has created a super-organism combining the acute sense of smell of the former with the questionable intelligence of the latter. In the days before toy poodles and their psychiatrists and exercise machines for cooperating with men whose frequent exploits make mockery of modern Iron Men competitions. It is partly this early era in several chapters that Wendy Bush has cronicled from her ransacking of archives and photographic collections from Rocky Mountain sources, to the Hudson Bay Company Archives to distill explorers' diaries along with her own interviews to produce a panoramic and intersting depiction of a past, none but the weekend adventurer would think they would care to repeat. Wendy's smooth prose is interspersed with diary quotes from explorers, travellers and the like, making easily digestible bites. She 'mushes' (French for 'marche') us from Indian dog-eating festivals, to the uncanny canine Hollywood dog actors, to the expected early explorations and mail service, to dog and wolf behaviour, to her own adventures, notably her retracing David Thompson's crossing of the Athabasca Pass in 1811. This is a well-researched book 162 references in its 192 pages, index included. Our author is the best kind of eccentric, the type that doesn't realize it. Wendy has worked the Jasper and Banff regions of the Canadian Rockies, taking people by dog-sled, snowshoes or horseback through those splendid landscapes. She thinks nothing of getting down to chew away the injurious snow accumulations between the dog's does. Despite life on a shoestring, she manages to travel to the British Museum of Natural History to reserch fleas, start up the Canadian Porcupine Service to promote Biodiversity as well as collecting obscure Rocky Mountain facts when she's not snowshoeing in the Bow Valley. For those who can't stomach puns, fear not; the only one is in the title. Although this book is Wendy Bush's personal celebration of her "respect for the inestimable role of these mute companions in our heritage," it is now ours as well. Thank you Wendy, whoever and wherever you are