Destiny and Power

January 18, 2016
America's 41st president shines as a nice guy with an edge of steel in this admiring biography. Pulitzer-winning historian Meacham (American Lion) styles Bush as the embodiment of Greatest Generation virtues: hard-working, dutiful, patriotic, well-mannered, friendly, fair-minded, and increasingly out of step with the ugly partisanship of latter-day politics. But beneath the soft affability he detects a fiercely competitive drive and go-it-alone nerve, especially when Bush decided to risk impeachment by launching the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq even without Congress's authorization. With access to Bush's genial-to-peevish diaries and extensive interviews with Bush, the author paints a warm, evocative portrait of a president who in office was tagged as a wimpy blur, one that supports later historical opinion in saluting his deft pragmatism in navigating the collapse of Soviet communism. But Meacham soft-pedals contradictions in Bush's character, like the very ungentlemanly 1988 presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis; and though Bush inaugurated America's resurgent military interventionism in the Middle East, a geopolitical watershed whose profound repercussions are still playing out, the book asks few serious questions about that troubled legacy. This is a vivid, well-written account that doesn't quite come to grips with its subject's pivotal place in history. Photos. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM.

An admiring life of the president who navigated the end game of the Cold War and stood up to Saddam Hussein.The more time that passes from the end of George H.W. Bush's one-term presidency, the more important he seems to grow, perhaps in contrast to the more dynamic and obviously flawed personalities of the presidents that served before and after him. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Meacham (Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, 2012, etc.), working in cooperation with Bush, his wife, Barbara, and their family, does a fine job of revealing the makeup of the man, destined--by virtue of his Eastern Ivy League pedigree and as second son of Prescott Bush, future Connecticut senator--for greatness. Competitive by nature, steady, and dependable--World War II pilot, devoted husband, and loyal Republican Party operative--Bush was decent perhaps to a fault. Americans seem to like their presidents given to grand gestures (see Teddy Roosevelt), but this went against Bush's buttoned-up, discreet style, to his frequent political misfortune. "He was a victim, in a way, of his instinct for dignity," writes Meacham. Bush's innate dignity indeed proved problematic early on with his move to big-oil Texas to set up roots in the late 1950s. The move was an attempt to forge his own destiny apart from his aristocratic East Coast family, but he never quite fit in. Part of Bush's early agony was caused by adopting positions that were far more conservative and right wing than were consistent with his true views--and then having to reverse them. In the end, he emerged from being eclipsed by larger personalities (Reagan, James Baker, Lee Atwater) to forge a steady, effective course during the world perils in Europe, China, and Iraq. In this meticulously researched but perhaps overlong biography, Meacham does his best with this "underwhelming" but noble subject. A revealing biography that should serve as the starting point for future evaluations of the 41st president. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 15, 2015

Random House executive editor Meacham lays claim to four New York Times best sellers, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Lion. Here he clarifies what has made George Herbert Walker Bush tick by drawing on exclusive access to the diaries and other documents of Bush and his wife, Barbara, while also placing him in the context of the Bush political dynasty.

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