by Jon Meacham
First published 2016
Jon Meacham traces the life of George Herbert Walker Bush through unprecedented access to the forty-first president's personal diaries and those of his wife Barbara. The Pulitzer Prize winner follows Bush from his privileged upbringing through his Navy service in World War II, where he was shot down over the Pacific at age twenty. Meacham chronicles Bush's journey from Texas oil ventures to a three-decade political ascent that took him through Congress, the United Nations, China, the CIA, the vice presidency under Reagan, and finally the Oval Office. The author draws on extensive interviews with Bush himself to reveal candid assessments of key figures from Nixon to Gorbachev, from Cheney to Clinton. Meacham examines pivotal moments including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, and the end of Communism. The biography captures Bush as an intensely private man who led during tumultuous times, ultimately becoming the first president since John Adams to watch his son claim the presidency. This portrait reveals both the nobility and flaws of a leader caught between duty and political destiny.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, political-science, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction, political-drama
Setting: Texas, United Nations, China, CIA, Oval Office, Berlin Wall, Gulf War
Period: World War II, Cold War, Fall of Communism
880 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks