American Dynasty: How the Bush Clan Became the World s Most Powerful and Dangerous Family
EUR 6,55
Paraphrasing a passage from Machiavelli s The Prince, Kevin Phillips writes a ruler can ignore the mob and devote himself to the interests of the ruling class, gulling the inert majority who constitute the ruled. He then says Borgia references aside, 21st-century American readers of The Prince may feel that they have stumbled on a thinly disguised Bush White House political memo. These pointed words would sting regardless of who uttered them, but coming from Phillips, a former Republican strategist, they have an added piquancy. In American Dynasty: How the Bush Clan Became the World s Most Powerful and Dangerous Family, Phillips traces the rise of the Bush family from investment banking elites to political power brokers, using their Ivy League network, vast wealth and questionable political manoeuvering to occupy the White House and consequently, shake the foundation of constitutional American democracy. Citing the Bush family mainstays of finance, energy (oil), the military industrial complex and national security and intelligence (the CIA), Phillips uses copious examples to show the dangerous alliance between the Bushes business interests (huge corporations such as Enron and Haliburton) and the formation of national policy. No other family, Phillips says, that has fulfilled its presidential aspirations has been so involved in the ascendancy of the arms industry and of the 21st-century American imperium--often at the expense of regional and world peace and for their personal gain. It is hard to tell what offends Phillips the most: the Bushes systematic deceit and secrecy, their shady business dealings, their cronyism, or their family philosophy that privileges the very wealthy and utterly dismisses all the rest. It is clearly all of these things combined. But at the top of Phillips list is the dynastic nature of their family power, for it is that concentration of power and influence that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Past administrations have transgressed, albeit not so egregiously and other political families have had dynastic ambitions, but none has succeeded as thoroughly as the Bushes. Jefferson and Madison would be horrified and, according to Phillips, we should be too. --Silvana Tropea, Amazon.com
entertaining, well researched, but a bit hysterical - At first glance this book is a well researched look at the Bush dynasty. Mr. Phillips look at the election of George W. Bush as a moment of dynastic restoration is enlightening and shows a side of American politics that is at the same time current as well as an ongoing phenomenon. Once you ve read the book you have the feeling of getting a thorough review of the Bush families dealings.And then you reread the preface and get the feeling that this book is much ado about nothing. Sure the Bush is deeply entrenched into the intelligence community and has used it s multiple contacts to further the families wealth. So what? You reread some of the parts of the book and just can t shake the feeling that Phillips tries to outline a scandal where there is none. Also his research is mostly depended on secondary sourced which really doesn t help his cause. Too many things are rewritten facts picked up from other peoples work. This is especially striking when reading the foot notes for the parts of the book commited to George H.W. Bushs connection to the intelligence community as well as George W. Bushes political career. Because of the fact that there aren t a lot of secondary sources (i.e. biographies) when it comes to Prescott Bush and Goerge Herbert Walker the book is rather thin on their dealings and backrounds.Overall this is a well written book well worth the money IF you haven t read a lot of other books about the family Bush. My only complaints about it are the at times a bit hysterical tone (especially the preface) and the over-reliance on secondary sources.
