First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty
by Bill Minutaglio
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bill MinutaglioEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-01-23
ISBN: 0609808672
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty
Book Review: Enlightening
Summary: 5 Stars
It was fascinating to read the true story of the Bush family, not the assumptions often reported. Who knew that he came from such a downtrodden background, worked so hard to rise from the ashes and achieve greatness at Yale? It's no small wonder that we have this great man leading our country through the holy wrath of war!Like his father, George W. is a stern and honorable, if not particularly well-spoken, fella'. He reads a teleprompter with unequalled ease and skill, a testament to his ability to comfortably rely on others. AS this book shows, these are all traits he learned while growing up with the help of many other wealthy and able men who were able to take the burden off of poor George W.'s shoulders. He truly is great, not to mention lucky, and he has strutted his lightened shoulders into the White House with only the slightest help from his father's friends in the Supreme Court.
Were it not for men like Bill Minutaglio, the world would be in horrible danger of being exposed to the false and misleading face of the truth. Buy this book!!!
Summary of First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty
In one of the most unprecedented developments in the history of national politics, George W. Bush abruptly emerged to lead all presidential aspirants in the national polls for the 2000 election. Yet voters know very little about the man, beyond his famous name and his place in one of the nation's most powerful political dynasties.First Son is a true, riveting family saga about extraordinary power and politics in America and in the unharnessed state--a state of mind--called Texas. The story begins with the turn-of-the-century emergence of the influential Bush-Walker clan and of Prescott Bush, the Connecticut patrician who ingrained in his family an ethos that continues to exert influence on his son, former President George Bush, and his grandsons, George W. and Jeb. How these scions of the Bush dynasty struggle to live up to their enduring legacy is the central theme of this colorful and perceptive portrait the first authentative book on the governor of Texas.
In the past year, award-winning Texas writer Bill Minutaglio has met with George W. Bush and interviewed dozens of people close to him, from his brother Governor Jeb Bush of Florida to uncles and cousins, from current and former political advisers to high-ranking insiders from his father's years in the White House. Fraternity buddies, political operatives, George W.'s employers, and even ardent critics of the Bush family bring this story to life--from the society circles in his native Connecticut to the family compound in Maine to the backwaters of his adopted Texas. The result is a book that is nuanced, insightful, and surprising in the contradictions and complexities it reveals about this man.
First Son vividly reconstructs George W. Bush's boarding-school days at one of the country's most exclusive institutions; his tenure in one of Yale's secret societies and as president of his unfettered fraternity; his attempts to follow his family's million-dollar path into the wide-open Texas oil patch; his role in major league baseball as the public face and head cheerleader for the Texas Rangers; and, finally, his rise to governor of Texas and national political force, executed with more hard-edged calculation than many people realize.
Written with precision, verve, and fair-minded balanace, First Son will be the political story of 2000--the eye-opening tale of a natural-born politician.
From the Hardcover edition.
The first of several Y2K biographies on Texas governor George W. Bush offers an in-depth look at both the Republican presidential candidate and his political family: Bill Minutaglio interviewed more than 300 people for First Son, including Bush and many members of his inner circle. The book focuses on the life of "Dubya" (the nickname used by the press and others to distinguish him from his father) and includes a combination of original material and information that has been reported elsewhere. It is neither pro- nor anti-Bush, simply reportorial and largely nonjudgmental. Readers won't find an answer to one of the season's most burning questions: Has Bush ever used illegal drugs? In a preface, Minutaglio piously says he won't stoop to such low levels. Yet one gets the sense that he won't go there because he doesn't have any hard evidence, as stories of Bush's heavy drinking are related without apparent reservation. Minutaglio, a writer for The Dallas Morning News, spends most of his time describing Bush's amazing and unexpected rise to fame. Dubya's own family, for instance, thought that younger brother Jeb would be the first to win an important public office. Yet Dubya exploited his family ties and personal charisma to have a successful business career in the 1980s and then beat a popular incumbent in 1994 to become Texas governor. (Jeb became governor of Florida in 1998, while his brother won a second term in Austin.) Minutaglio's narrative goes light on Bush's gubernatorial record and ends before his formal entry into the presidential race in 1999. Readers hungry for an overview of the man who would be president, however, could do much worse than start by looking here. --John J. Miller
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