The Consequences to Come: American Power after Bush

The presidency of George W. Bush, as Jonathan Freedland noted, has created a near consensus that the “invasion of Iraq was a calamity” and has “reduced America’s standing in the world and made the United States less, not more secure.” Joan Didion described Vice President Dick Cheney as “the central player in the system of willed errors and reversals that is the Bush administration.”
Peter Galbraith argued that from the beginning of the occupation of Iraq, Bush “facilitated the very event he warned would be a disastrous consequence of a US withdrawal from Iraq: the takeover of a large part of the country by an Iranian-backed militia.”

As the presidential campaign got underway, Michael Tomasky explained that “despite Bush’s failures and the discrediting of Republican governance, there is every chance that the next Republican president, should the party’s nominee prevail...will be just as conservative as Bush has been—perhaps even more so.” And Frank Rich predicted that it would take the Democrats’ “full powers of self-immolation” to lose the White House in 2008.

The Consequences to Come contributors: Joan Didion, Joseph Lelyveld, Mark Danner, Peter Galbraith, Jonathan Freedland, Jonathan Raban, Frank Rich, Michael Tomasky, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

For the past seven years The New York Review of Books has critically examined the Bush administration’s policies at home and abroad. In this collection of essays, nine of the Review’s contributors assess the human and political costs of the war on terror and the occupation of Iraq, and look ahead to the issues shaping the 2008 election campaign.

The presidency of George W. Bush, as Jonathan Freedland noted, has created a near consensus that the “invasion of Iraq was a calamity” and has “reduced America’s standing in the world and made the United States less, not more secure.” Joan Didion described Vice President Dick Cheney as “the central player in the system of willed errors and reversals that is the Bush administration.”
Peter Galbraith argued that from the beginning of the occupation of Iraq, Bush “facilitated the very event he warned would be a disastrous consequence of a US withdrawal from Iraq: the takeover of a large part of the country by an Iranian-backed militia.”

As the presidential campaign got underway, Michael Tomasky explained that “despite Bush’s failures and the discrediting of Republican governance, there is every chance that the next Republican president, should the party’s nominee prevail...will be just as conservative as Bush has been—perhaps even more so.” And Frank Rich predicted that it would take the Democrats’ “full powers of self-immolation” to lose the White House in 2008.

The Consequences to Come contributors: Joan Didion, Joseph Lelyveld, Mark Danner, Peter Galbraith, Jonathan Freedland, Jonathan Raban, Frank Rich, Michael Tomasky, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Publishers Weekly

These 10 essays culled from the New York Review of Books appraise the legacy of the Bush presidency and offer stinging critiques of his domestic and foreign policies. Beginning with Joan Didion's damning portrait of Vice President Dick Cheney ("the central player in the system of willed errors and reversals that is the Bush administration"), the essays cover the consequences of the war on terror, the Guantánamo Bay controversies, Iran's growing geopolitical influence, the 2008 election and the growing fissures in the GOP. Persuasive and lavishly researched, the essays reach their climax in Arthur Schlesinger's final published work, where he writes, "History is indeed an argument without end," and therefore must be vigilantly consulted by those looking to move ahead-a claim that brilliantly justifies the importance of these critical essays. Although the contributors are unanimous in their opposition to the Bush administration and the occupation of Iraq, these pieces do not devolve into mere political screed; instead, they read as a history written on the heels of the present and offer a look at the political landscape of the future. (June)

Robert B. Silvers is co-founder and editor of The New York Review of Books. He is the editor of Hidden Histories of Science and Five Performing Arts, and co-editor of Striking Terror: America’s New War, The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin, India: A Mosaic, and The Company They Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships.