In this candid and gripping account, President
George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his
presidency and personal life.
George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight
of the most consequential years in American history.
The decisions that reached his desk impacted
people around the world and defined the times in which we live.
Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor's mansion
on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the
harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the
Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and
behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic
presidential decisions.
For the first time, we learn President Bush's perspective and
insights on:
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His decision to quit drinking and the journey
that led him to his Christian faith
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The selection of the vice president, secretary
of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and
other key officials
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His relationships with his wife, daughters,
and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president
and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
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His administration's counterterrorism
programs, including the CIA's enhanced interrogations and the
Terrorist Surveillance Program
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Why the worst moment of the presidency was
hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal
government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical
assessment of what he would have done differently during the
crisis
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His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a
defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public
opinion by ordering the troop surge
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His legislative achievements, including tax
cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his
setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
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The relationships he forged with other world
leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and
didn’t trust
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Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to
justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success
in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America
again—is among his proudest achievements
A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir,
Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and
change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American
history—and on the man at the center of events.
Since leaving office, President George W. Bush has
led the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, Texas. The center includes an active policy
institute working to advance initiatives in the fields of education
reform, global health, economic growth, and human freedom, with a
special emphasis on promoting social entrepreneurship and creating
opportunities for women around the world. It will also house an
official government archive and a state-of-the-art museum that will
open in 2013.
| |  | The Presidential Difference:
Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush Princeton University's Fred I. Greenstein caps off an illustrious career as a presidential scholar with The Presidential Difference. This book won't fundamentally change the way anybody looks at the last 11 chief executives--Greenstein's earlier work The Hidden-Hand Presidency revolutionized the academy's view of Eisenhower--but it does provide a worthwhile series of minibiographies and analytical summations. Greenstein rates his subjects in several categories: communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. |
|  | My Life by Bill ClintonAn exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton's My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the former president as a son, brother, teacher, father, husband, and public figure. Clinton painstakingly outlines the history behind his greatest successes and failures, including his dedication to educational and economic reform, his war against a "vast right-wing operation" determined to destroy him, and the "morally indefensible" acts for which he was nearly impeached. My Life is autobiography as therapy--a personal history written by a man trying to face and banish his private demons. |
|  | Ronald Reagan:
Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History From Booklist... Because Reagan has been misinterpreted by both the Right and the Left, his legacy in American political history has been distorted and undervalued, according to Diggins, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Left (1992). Contrary to liberal opinions, Reagan was no philosophical lightweight, nor was he the moral absolutist lauded by conservatives. He was a man of consistent beliefs, forged during the cold war. In his efforts to end the cold war, he was closer to liberals who always thought it possible than to conservatives who didn't believe it could ever be done. Reagan was "the only president in American history to have resolved a sustained, deadly international confrontation without going to war," defying liberal expectations of him personally and conservative expectations of the value of diplomacy. | | Reagan rejected the authority of religion as much as government. By convincing Americans to believe in themselves, Reagan demonstrated the duality of American political culture, that it is both liberal and conservative. This is a thoughtful book for both Reagan admirers and critics. Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved |
| A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House |  | Written by one of our foremost historians and published in 1965, A Thousand Days is still considered the most complete and definitive portrait of John F. Kennedy and his administration. Handpicked by Kennedy to serve as special assistant to the president, historian and Harvard professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. witnessed firsthand the politics and personalities that influenced some of the most important and dramatic events in modern history. The hundreds of photographs and documents included here have been gleaned from such sources as the John F. Kennedy Library, the Library of Congress, the Associated Press, Life magazine, and more. The photos capture private meetings with the president, the Bay of Pigs, the Civil Rights movement, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as official White House memoranda, public speeches, social occasions, and private moments with the Kennedy family. These powerful images add a new dimension to the award-winning text and introduce a new generation to some of the most important and visually iconic moments in our recent past. |
|  | Eisenhower From Publishers Weekly
In this admiring and enormously readable revision/condensation of his acclaimed two-volume biography, published in 1983 and 1984, Ambrose reminds us that this "great and good man" was the most successful general of the greatest war ever fought and the only president of this century to preside over eight years of peace and prosperity. Tracing Eisenhower's family background, education, military and political careers, and influence as elder statesman, the author chronicles Eisenhower's triumphs and failures and at the same time provides a vivid picture of the off-duty Ike. As Allied Supreme Commander, he is revealed once again as a coalition leader of extraordinary ability (and "an intensely alive human being who enjoyed his job immensely"). | | As our 34th president, he was a statesman who guided the free world through one of the most dangerous decades of the Cold War. Ambrose argues that Eisenhower has much to say to us today on such fundamental issues as national defense, arms expenditures, the importance of a balanced budget and the desirability of a United States of Europe with an all-European army. This is the definitive one-volume biography of Eisenhower. |
|  | Truman This warm biography of Harry Truman is both an historical evaluation of his presidency and a paean to the man's rock-solid American values. Truman was a compromise candidate for vice president, almost an accidental president after Roosevelt's death 12 weeks into his fourth term. Truman's stunning come-from-behind victory in the 1948 election showed how his personal qualities of integrity and straightforwardness were appreciated by ordinary Americans, perhaps, as McCullough notes, because he was one himself. His presidency was dominated by enormously controversial issues: he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, established anti-Communism as the bedrock of American foreign policy, and sent U.S. troops into the Korean War. In this winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, McCullough argues that history has validated most of Truman's war-time and Cold War decisions. |
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