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Title: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by J. H. Hatfield, Mark Crispin Miller, J.H. Hatfield ISBN: 1-887128-75-1 Publisher: Soft Skull Press Pub. Date: 10 July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (38 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The truth is out there - probably
Comment: I put off reading this book for a long time, thanks to the questions we all had about Hatfield's integrity and the credibility of his charges against the Accidental President. This newly updated and better-annotated edition put these concerns to rest, and although it's not the best Bush biography I've read thus far, it deserves far more respect than it's received from the mainstream media. For a book which Bush's supporters went to great lengths to prevent from ever being published, Hatfield shows a surprising lack of antagonism toward his subject for the most part. Molly Ivins' "Shrub," Mark Crispin Miller's "The Bush Dyslexicon" and Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?" are all far more openly partisan (and better written), but Hatfield does provide information not available elsewhere about the youthful indiscretion that Bush and his allies have otherwise done a superb job of keeping buried.
Using straightforward accounts from the public record and those who know him, Hatfield illustrates such issues as Bush's obliviousness to racial segregation in his hometown, his indifference to his studies at Andover and Yale, his alcoholism, his spotty record in the Air National Guard, his questionable business dealings, and his performance as governor. Bush's actions and words speak for themselves throughout the book, and Hatfield shows little inclination to analyze them to death or to put an actively anti-Bush spin on them. In fact, he occasionally sounds pro-Bush, noting, for example, that he got off to a respectable start in the oil business after graduating from Harvard Business School. Some of the less flattering accounts, such as that of his "service" in the Air National Guard, have a necessarily vague and incomplete feel to them, mainly because there simply isn't a lot of reliable information available about that period of Bush's life. Hatfield is, however, able to provide a number of accounts of cocaine use and womanizing that stand in sharp contrast to the family-values image Bush's handlers have managed to convey to the public. If Hatfield's research failed to answer many questions about the extended adolescence Bush himself has always refused to discuss, he did succeed brilliantly in raising many questions that deserve to be addressed but haven't been thus far.
The book's most famous accusation - that Bush was arrested for cocaine posession in 1972 and his father got the charges dropped - is more solidly supported than I'd been led to believe. Although Hatfield did fail to produce a source who was willing to confirm the story on the record, he names a number of sources who probably know the answer but - like Bush himself - refuse to confirm or deny it. Additionally, he provides three anonymous sources, not a lone Deep Throat as has been widely reported. The afterword does have a cloak-and-dagger feel to it all the same, and there are typographical and grammatical errors sprinkled throughout the narrative which have helped to make the book easy for Bush supporters to vilify.
But for all that, most of what Hatfield reports is well-annotated (in contrast to the original printing) and presented in a non-sensationalistic style. If Hatfield was not the ideal messenger, he at least provided us with an important collection of information that other journalists chose to gloss over or didn't have access to. As Mark Crispin Miller points out in his introduction, the Bush campaign's reaction to the book was just as telling in one sense as the book itself is. If it's inaccurate, why suppress it?
Celebrate your right to know. Whatever your politics, read the book and decide for yourself whether or not it's worth believing.
Rating: 3
Summary: Factual biography of GW Bush
Comment: A "just the facts, ma'am" biography. Not especially good reading but a nice little reference book that gives an outline of GW Bush's life so far. It does document where Bush's money comes from - mainly Friends of Dad. It also details his rather dismal business performance and exposes his less than glowing record as Governor of Texas.
What amazes me, with all the hype about this book, is how even-handed it is. Bush is portrayed as not unlikeable, kind of lazy, rich boy who can't help it if he's "lucky." The cocaine bit is not all that well documented and the author barely delves into other areas in GW's background that are murky - not serving his full time in Texas ANG, insider knowledge of Gulf War, etc. All in all it is the portrait of a man with natural political instincts and wealthy backers. So, what else is new? It is no more critical of Bush than David Maranass' First in His Class is about Clinton. ...
Rating: 5
Summary: Very good
Comment: George W. Bush is not the sharpest tool in the shed and I think we all know that, but he is certainly sneaky, conniving and out for himself. This well researched book tells just what a spoiled rich kid he is and how he is used to getting his own way no matter what the expense or who gets in the way. This book details his business failures, his drinking and drug problems including his arrest for cocaine . But not to worry, daddy took care of that little mess. The author and the publisher were even threatened with a lawsuit because George didn't want the truth to get out. The author was eventually killed...what a surprise. A very interesting book even if your not into politics.
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Title: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by J. H. Hatfield ISBN: 1887128840 Publisher: Soft Skull Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose ISBN: 0375757147 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder by Mark Crispin Miller ISBN: 0393322963 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed by Russell S. Bowen ISBN: 0922356807 Publisher: America West Publishers Pub. Date: 01 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast ISBN: 0452283914 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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