George Herbert Walker Bush: A Penguin Lives Biography

No one is more qualified to give a fully rounded, objective portrait of our forty-first president than Tom Wicker. A political correspondent for The New York Times for more than thirty years, Wicker was a first-hand witness to and reporter of George H. W. Bush’s political rise and presidential reign. In George Herbert Walker Bush, Wicker provides a richly drawn and succinct overview of Bush from his New England roots, his decorated service in World War II, and his successful oil businesses to his shift to politics and rapid rise within the Republican party. As he describes changes within the Republican party in recent decades, Wicker charts Bush’s career, including in-depth analysis of his campaign tactics and his gift for creating friendships and inspiring loyalty which, Wicker argues, has been the key to Bush’s success. The result is a fascinating, timely glimpse into one of the most powerful families in America today, complete with insights into the current reign of George W. Bush, the continued legacy of the Bush family, and contemporary American politics. 

A revealing biography of the elder George Bush, from one of the most respected political writers of our time

No one is more qualified to give a fully rounded, objective portrait of our forty-first president than Tom Wicker. A political correspondent for The New York Times for more than thirty years, Wicker was a first-hand witness to and reporter of George H. W. Bush’s political rise and presidential reign. In George Herbert Walker Bush, Wicker provides a richly drawn and succinct overview of Bush from his New England roots, his decorated service in World War II, and his successful oil businesses to his shift to politics and rapid rise within the Republican party. As he describes changes within the Republican party in recent decades, Wicker charts Bush’s career, including in-depth analysis of his campaign tactics and his gift for creating friendships and inspiring loyalty which, Wicker argues, has been the key to Bush’s success. The result is a fascinating, timely glimpse into one of the most powerful families in America today, complete with insights into the current reign of George W. Bush, the continued legacy of the Bush family, and contemporary American politics.

Publishers Weekly

The opening anecdote sets the tone for this uncomplimentary brief bio: Wicker recounts a visit by an (unnamed) friend to the post-presidential office of George H.W. Bush in Houston. The two men share an hour of purposeless small talk, prompting the friend and the author to reflect that the visit is a microcosm of the life of Bush, who seemed to have no strong purpose other than "a burning desire to become president." The rest of Wicker's biography sketches Bush as a man with the faults and virtues of his patrician background: loyalty, gregariousness, personal modesty, intense competitiveness, a shallow mind and a deep sense of entitlement. His credentials for the White House, Wicker notes, were scanty; the author dismisses Bush's impressive-looking r sum (two-term congressman, U.N. ambassador, CIA director, GOP chairman, Reagan's vice-president) as padded with thankless jobs proffered by presidents who found him harmless and pliable. He credits Bush with two impressive acts: daring to recommend resignation to President Nixon (before the entire cabinet, no less) at the climax of the Watergate scandal and forging the global coalition that drove the armies of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 a feat of diplomacy, Wicker notes, made possible by Bush's lifelong skill at befriending practically everyone. But veteran journalist Wicker faults Bush for what the author categorizes as a readiness to alter positions for political advantage and repeated use of "low blows" to attack electoral opponents like Bob Dole and Michael Dukakis (behavior that, he claims, Bush would never have tolerated on the tennis court). For those who lived through the Bush years, the story Wicker tells is a familiar one, here usefully if briefly summarized; for others, this account will provide a handy starting point for further study of the Bush legacy. Agent, David Black. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Tom Wicker covered American politics at The New York Times from 1960 to the early 1990s, when he succeeded Arthur Krock as writer of the “In the Nation” column. He is the author of several books of nonfiction, including One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream, and JFK and LBJ, as well as several novels.