In this devastating book, onetime Republican strategist Phillips reveals how four generations of Bushes have ascended the ladder of national power since World War One, becoming entrenched within the American establishment—Yale, Wall Street, the Senate, the CIA, the vice presidency, and the presidency—through a recurrent flair for old-boy networking, national security involvement, and political deception. By uncovering relationships and connecting facts with new clarity, Phillips comes to a stunning conclusion: The Bush family has systematically used its financial and social empire—its "aristocracy"—to gain the White House, thereby subverting the very core of American democracy. In their ambition, the Bushes ultimately reinvented themselves with brilliant timing, twisting and turning from silver spoon Yankees to born-again evangelical Texans. As America—and the world—holds its breath for the 2004 presidential election, American Dynasty explains how it happened and what it all means.

Average Rating:


Review: 2008-11-22

Like most, I drank the Kool-Aid...
I feel like a complete IDIOT (especially since I hold a degree in Political Science from a top-20 college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) for having fallen so hard and fast for the Bush clan.
Well...let's be fair...I like the wives. This is a riveting piece which gives so much context and specificity to WHY the 90's turned out the way they did. Especially in the case of "W", we see fully fleshed-out as in the Oliver Stone film that desire to at all costs please Daddy. We see the lies (which the author generously and euphemistically terms "deceit").
We see the often clandestine and nefarious oil connection with names that later would be made out to sound almost Satan-like to all Americans. We see the sicko hand of Karl Rove in helping shape often non-existent and frigthening scenarios so as to keep a huge "thumb" on the public mood and to keep "W"'s approval ratings sky-high (except toward the end of term 2).
All-in-all...this and Phillips' follow-up book "American Theocracy" should
be required reading for anyone wanting to look back and properly assess
the damage of (mostly) the younger Bush's two terms. But let's not put
ALL the blame on "W". He had an excellent role model to follow, and this meaty book does, indeed, cover in great detail the foundings and development of the family and then its later-questionable bed partners.
Christian Carswell is a wedding photographer...not an investigative journalist. But after tearing through this scarily enlightening book by a guy who IS (and an extremely highly-regarded-by-his-peers writer at that)
you'll almost wish you could give up your current occupation and do what Kevin Phillips does. It must be fun and rewarding unearthing so much never-reported information and packaging it into a linear and very readable / enjoyable volume that not only clues-in the clueless masses but also pays handsomely!


Review: 2008-08-06

Required Reading
I wish this book had been read widely before the 2004 election. And even more, that it had been published before the 2000 election. It puts a whole different perspective on the forces that have brought us to such unhappy consequenses in the USA. I found this book to be highly informative, knowlegeable and chilling. A good read even though it is too late to change history. And a valuable lesson as we march into the next decades. Dynasties are anti-democratic.

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