Linkmeister

So many books...

Here's a book review of Kevin Phillips' latest work, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. It's a study of four generations of Bushes and their overriding ambitions, not out of principle but from a need for self-aggrandizement. There are several good quotes from the book in the review; here's one:

The Bushes have nothing to commend them to the public save rank ambition. Other than accumulating a certain amount of money and achieving a measure of what passes for aristocratic social position in this country, the Bushes have achieved nothing of distinction and appear to believe in nothing except their own interests.

Before all the pro-Bush folks shriek, let me quote Yardley again:

That this powerful argument has been made by Kevin Phillips should be a measure of how seriously it should be taken. He is not an ideologue of the left -- to the contrary, he has been identified with the Republican Party for some three decades, though he now calls himself an independent -- and he is not a conspiracy theorist; indeed he makes plain at the outset that "we must be cautious here not to transmute commercial relationships into . . . conspiracy theory." It is true that in some instances his argument rests on circumstantial evidence and in others (mostly involving the family's engagement with espionage and secret arrangements) on conjecture. It is also true that at times reading his dense prose can be an uphill battle. But American Dynasty is an important, troubling book that should be read everywhere with care, nowhere more so than in this city.

I've read Phillips' Wealth and Democracy, and I recommend that one. This book sounds equally interesting.

Posted by Linkmeister at January 12, 2004 08:45 AM