Bush
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Narrated by:
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Tom Perkins
About this listen
George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, almost single-handedly decided to invade Iraq. It was possibly the worst foreign-policy decision ever made by a president. The consequences dominated the Bush administration and still haunt us today.
In Bush, Jean Edward Smith demonstrates that it was not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice but President Bush himself who took personal control of foreign policy. Bush drew on his deep religious conviction that important foreign-policy decisions were simply a matter of good versus evil. Domestically, he overreacted to 9/11 and endangered Americans' civil liberties. Smith explains that it wasn't until the financial crisis of 2008 that Bush finally accepted expert advice, something that "the Decider", as Bush called himself, had previously been unwilling to do. As a result he authorized decisions that saved the economy from possible collapse, even though some of those decisions violated Bush's own political philosophy.
©2016 Jean Edward Smith (P)2016 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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A simpler time?
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From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.
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The Fighting Season
- By Cynthia on 01-28-14
By: Robert M. Gates
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Counselor
- A Life at the Edge of History
- By: Ted Sorensen
- Narrated by: Ted Sorensen
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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Ted Sorensen, John F. Kennedy's closest advisor, recounts in full, for the first time, his experience counseling Kennedy through some of the most dramatic moments in American history. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage. Sorensen encouraged the junior senator's political ambitions and was later named special counsel to the president.
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Rare Insight
- By Robert on 05-10-08
By: Ted Sorensen
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The Promise
- President Obama, Year One
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Jonathan Alter
- Length: 20 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Barack Obama’s inauguration as president on January 20, 2009, inspired the world. But the great promise of “Change We Can Believe In” was immediately tested by the threat of another Great Depression, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and an entrenched and deeply partisan system of business as usual in Washington. Despite all the coverage, the backstory of Obama’s historic first year in office has until now remained a mystery.
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Tiresome
- By Matthew on 05-21-10
By: Jonathan Alter
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Camelot's Court
- Inside the Kennedy White House
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls "Kennedy's leading biographer", delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors, their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot's Court, Dallek analyzes the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy's administration - including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam - were indelible.
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Well Researched but Critically Flawed
- By brent lloyd on 02-08-22
By: Robert Dallek
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The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson
- The White House Years
- By: Joseph A. Califano Jr.
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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President Lyndon Johnson was bigger than life - and no one who worked for him or was subjected to the "Johnson treatment" ever forgot it. As Johnson's "Deputy President of Domestic Affairs", Joseph A. Califano's unique relationship with the president greatly enriches our understanding of our 36th president. Califano shows listeners LBJ's commitment to economic and social revolution, and his willingness to do whatever it took to achieve his goals.
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LBJ The Greatest President of 20th century
- By David W. Goldstein on 07-28-15
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Roosevelt's Second Act
- The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War
- By: Richard Moe
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On August 31, 1939, nearing the end of his second and presumably final term in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was working in the Oval Office and contemplating construction of his presidential library and planning retirement. The next day German tanks had crossed the Polish border; Britain and France had declared war. Overnight the world had changed, and FDR found himself being forced to consider a dramatically different set of circumstances.
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Puts listener in the moment.
- By Jake on 05-16-14
By: Richard Moe
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Bibi
- By: Anshel Pfeffer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli prime minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life - and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career.
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Very biased.
- By Anonymous User on 10-14-22
By: Anshel Pfeffer
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Kissinger
- A Biography
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 34 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to a Gallup poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world’s imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man's personality and the foreign policy he pursued.
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A dissapointment
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-16-13
By: Walter Isaacson
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LBJ's 1968
- Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval
- By: Kyle Longley
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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1968 was an unprecedented year in terms of upheaval on numerous scales: political, military, economic, social, cultural. In the United States, perhaps no one was more undone by the events of 1968 than President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Kyle Longley leads his listeners on a behind-the-scenes tour of what Johnson characterized as the 'year of a continuous nightmare'. Longley explores how LBJ perceived the most significant events of 1968, including the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the violent Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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Worst year in my lifetime - LBJ tragedy of his own making - but not according to this Author.
- By charles wartelle on 05-17-19
By: Kyle Longley
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Worst. President. Ever.
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Barack Obama
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In a groundbreaking work based on hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama, and a trove of letters, journals, and other documents, one of our pre-eminent journalists presents a richly textured account of Barack Obama and the forces that shaped him. This book begins in Kansas and Kenya, decades before Obama was born, and ends as he prepares for a political life. The listener gains a deeper insight into the first black president of the United States, revealing as never before the arc of his history.
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Solid Work @ Debunking Fairy-Tales & Dark Fantasms
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What listeners say about Bush
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. James-Long
- 05-20-17
Pronounciation of Arabic names was really grating
Good book but the pronouciation of Arabic names (especially of Maliki) was really grating. It just went on and on.
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- JayJay
- 05-01-18
Excellent
Having just finished listening to Smith’s Bush biography, I disagree with suggestions of it being biased. It does indeed takes a critical look at the Bush 43 presidency and a biography of any administration must do that in order to have credibility- and criticism is not the same as bias.
I found it to be fair- highlighting successes along with failures- and to suggest Bush didn’t have massive, historical failures would simply be dishonest. The facts and information provided are easily verified and most listeners will likely remember first-hand the events covered.
This is an extremely well-written account of the Bush 43 era, it’s an easy listen that draws you in and the 25 hours just seem to fly by.
I’d highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in American political history, but would discourage anyone looking for revisionism. I found it highly informative and a rewarding listen. It is by no means a puff piece, but neither does the author attempt a character assassination.
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- Dalekchap
- 12-27-16
Reads like a novel - complete page turner
Where does Bush rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Definitely in the top 20 (I have read a bunch). I don't think I would read it again but it is fascinating the first time.
What did you like best about this story?
The blend of third party commentary and the views and vision of the man himself.
Which character – as performed by Tom Perkins – was your favorite?
Well, there is really only one. Bush.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes. It was very compelling.
Any additional comments?
The book starts with a background of Bush - a very funny, witty, and sympathetic man. The book ends with the Bush that the world saw following Sept 11 - he was struggling to fully understand what had happened and really did not comprehend the wide reaching problems his actions would have. I was not a fan of Bush as President, but this book humanized him and made me more aware of the complexity of the job, the poor advice and resulting poor decisions he made. While my feelings about him as a poor president did not change I feel that now I understand him better.
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- A. Rabin
- 08-05-16
Well written, reasonably balanced- a good read
If you could sum up Bush in three words, what would they be?
Interesting, detailed, objective
What was one of the most memorable moments of Bush?
The earlier part of the book that talks about Bush's early life and challenges and how they made and shaped the man he became later. It was well done and conveyed empathy with Bush, even if you may not have agreed with or even liked him as president.
If you could give Bush a new subtitle, what would it be?
The man behind the Presidency
Any additional comments?
The author is clearly not a Bush fan, but I did not find the book overly anti-Bush in tone. I felt he took effort to present objective facts and details in an interesting, narrative way, and drew conclusions based on the facts.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-17-24
A Balanced, Outstanding Biography
I strongly disagree with many of the other reviews that accuse this biography of being biased against George W. Bush. On the contrary, this book offers a balanced perspective on Bush's successes and failures. Although I still strongly disagree with Bush's war against Iraq, I have more respect for Bush as a human being and a better understanding of why he made the choices that he did. This book described many of Bush's positive accomplishments during his presidency about which I was unaware. If anything, I found fhe book too complimentary of NCLB, an educational policy that in reality had many flaws. I highly reccomend this book for anyone that wants to better understand the presidency of George W. Bush. The book is also fast paced and held my attention throughout. The reader does an excellent job and is a joy to listen to.
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- Rick
- 11-18-16
Delusions of Competence
If, like me, you thought of George W. Bush as an intellectual lightweight who was manipulated by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the other neoconservatives in launching a devastating war for fabricated reasons, prepare to be surprised.
He was much worse than that.
With the meticulous and persuasive “Bush,” Jean Edward Smith methodically dismantles the prevailing misconceptions of the 43rd president, who reveled in his role as Commander in Chief and wasn’t kidding when he announced, “I’m the decider.” He was. He made firm, crisp decisions, often without much thought.
Smith chronicles Bush’s early years as a back-slapping, hard-drinking son of privilege, parlaying his achievements as Texas governor and his born-again conversion into an improbable run for the presidency. Far from being duped by subordinates, he was a quiet Christian zealot who—whether supporting childhood education or laying waste to Iraq—believed without question he was doing God’s will. It was to him a Higher Authority that outranked both the Constitution and international law. Cheney and others were all too willing to follow his lead.
When intelligence didn’t demonstrate that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Bush didn’t push for more. What he pushed for was better marketing, to persuade the American public that the invasion he had already irrevocably decided upon was justified. It wasn’t faulty intelligence, it was orchestrated lies about what the intelligence really said.
It is clear that Bush was determined to vanquish Iraq long before the 9/11 attack on New York.
“Bush” is filled with detailed anecdotes (the hardcover is 832 pages long), such as his futile attempt to convince the French to join the coalition against Saddam. It’s what led Bush partisans to label the French as cowards, and to rename French fries as “freedom fries” in the Congressional cafeterias.
The French declined to join in the invasion, not for lack of courage, but because Jacques Chirac was shocked when Bush told him the war was mandated by the Book of Revelations. At that moment, Chirac knew that the failure to find WMD would never be enough to deter Bush.
Smith writes, “For Bush the coming attack [on Iraq] would mark the beginning of the final battle to rid the world of evil. He may or may not have believed it would be a cakewalk, but he was certain it was God’s will.”
That invasion was seen by most of the world as a war of US aggression. At the UN, Kofi Annan flatly called it “illegal.”
For Bush, everything was a self-righteous holy war against “the axis of evil,” the obvious implication being that he had no business serving as Commander in Chief. The smug, unconditional certainty that derived from a born-again religious conviction carried the world into war that may never end. Not to mention the great recession that followed.
Together with a massive aggregation of particulars by the author, the narration by Tom Perkins contributes much to the credibility of “Bush.” His delivery is straightforward, unemotional, and free of any implied opinion that could easily surface amid the damning details. The book is highly critical of Bush, yet far too meticulous to be dismissed as an opinionated hatchet job.
The former president has often said that history will be kind to his legacy. Smith’s conclusion that Bush “may have been the worst president in U.S. history” is not a very good start.
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7 people found this helpful
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- oyezman
- 10-03-16
A Powerful Reminder
Most people don't like to be reminded of our errors but it is helpful to understand the many ways in which the Bush43 presidency went wrong. Smith has chronicled these 8 years and more with measured prose and does not engage in piling on when that would be the all too human instinct. Never again, folks.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Gretchen Hunter
- 07-20-22
Poor Narrator
I’ve read two other biographies by Jean Edward Smith and loved them. While I enjoyed this book, the narrator was terrible. Stop trying to sound like Bush. It is off putting.
Also learn how to pronounce names. Colin Powell pronounced his first name like colon. The narrator sometimes pronounced it correctly and sometimes didn’t.
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- Joey Ghirardelli
- 02-01-23
Critical comments could have been softened a bit!
A little too critical in some parts of the book. Would like to have more detail of the market crash and the key players roles.
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- Scott
- 07-21-16
Covers the bases
A comprehensive look at the life, accomplishments, and failings of the 43rd president. Smith is no fan, considering Bush's presidency as a monumental failure though he does credit him with several successes such as his campaign to combat AIDS in Africa and his response to the 2008 financial crisis. In other words, Smith treads on no new ground here. This is worthy history but thin biography. A reader looking for insights into what made Bush tick, his younger years, or his relationships will find slim pickings here.
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6 people found this helpful