{"id":579,"date":"2018-12-31T12:55:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=579"},"modified":"2018-12-31T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:55:38","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

7.3.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Biographer offers critical appraisal of Bush\u2019s presidency<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>Historian and biographer Jean Edward Smith<\/span> gets right to the point in Bush,<\/span> his critical 800-page biography of President George W.\u00a0 Bush (Simon & Schuster, $35 hardcover). It goes on sale Tuesday. \u201cRarely in the history of the United States,\u201d he writes in the opening paragraph, \u201chas the nation been so ill-served as during the presidency of George W. Bush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith says Bush prided himself on being decisive, but \u201chis self-confidence and decisiveness caused him to do far more damage than a less assertive president would have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writer is especially critical of Bush\u2019s decision to go to war with Iraq. \u201c(His) decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was a tragic error,\u201d Smith writes. \u201cIt was compounded by his follow-on decision to install Western-style democracy, and the ensuing military occupation that entailed. The tragic loss of life, the instability, the sectarian strife, and the rise of ISIS are all in many respects attributable to those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Smith also credits Bush with \u201cnoteworthy\u201d accomplishments: Leading the global fight against AIDS; making tough and unpopular decisions to rescue Wall Street and the American auto industry in 2008 when the nation was on the brink of another Great Depression; improving educational standards; extending Medicare to include prescription drugs for seniors; and providing for a smooth transition of power to President Obama.<\/p>\n

Smith, author of comprehensive biographies of Presidents Eisenhower, Grant, and Franklin Roosevelt, said he was not permitted to interview Bush for the book. An interview had been arranged, he writes, but he received a phone call from Bush\u2019s assistant who said, \u201cThe president does not wish to see you. You have written a book critical of his father (George Bush\u2019s War<\/span>), and because of that he does not wish to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first 150 pages of concern George W.\u2019s early years, presiding over the Texas Rangers baseball team, serving as governor of Texas, running for president, and the Supreme Court decision that finally settled the 2000 election. The next 500 pages or so deal with the many aspects and issues of Bush\u2019s two terms as president, followed by about 150 pages of notes, bibliography, and index.<\/p>\n

The biography, though certainly critical, seems even-handed, reasoned, dispassionate, not harsh or shrill. Bush comes across as a pretty likeable person. But the book will probably not find favor with Republicans, and one wonders how many Democrats will want to devote that much time to reading an in-depth analysis of Bush\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

It is, however, a compelling and coherent examination of how decisions were made in the Bush White House and how Bush\u2019s faith strongly influenced his world view \u2014 for better or worse \u2014 especially with regard to Iraq. Bush left office with a historically low public approval rating and was ranked in a survey of historians in November 2008 as the worst president in American history.<\/p>\n

Smith doesn\u2019t go quite that far. \u201cWhether George W.\u00a0 Bush was the worst president in American history will be long debated,\u201d Smith concludes, \u201cbut his decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is More Civility, Please. <\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 7.3.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Biographer offers critical appraisal of Bush\u2019s presidency Historian and biographer Jean Edward Smith gets right to the point in Bush, his critical 800-page biography of President George W.\u00a0 Bush (Simon & Schuster, $35 hardcover). It goes on sale Tuesday. \u201cRarely in the history of the United States,\u201d he writes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}