The Fate of the Father: The Bush Policy Paradox

One cannot understand the presidency and politics of the George W. Bush without first considering the fate and historical legacy of his father. For it was the elder Bush who cleared the way for his two sons. It was also the collapse of the elder Bush, in 1992, that paradoxically cleared the son's way. In fact, George W. Bush's way to the governor's mansion and then the White House carried an element of family restoration, but restoration that came only after defeat, the political equivalent of revolution in which the older order was overthrown.

This book is more than simply a meditation on how the son's style, his policies, his politics, differ from the father's. It is a study of how the son's legacy is, in some senses, built on a repudiation—perhaps even a willful misrepresentation—of parts of the father's legacy.