Rating: 
Summary: A documented fraud!
Review: Many reviews mention the volumes of documentation Mr. Phillips provided in his book. I re-researched his "documentation" and discovered many of his quotes are of various individuals who made unsubstantiated claims against the Bush's. Indeed these claims are on record, but there is little to no basis for such claims in the first place. This book is a very good example of the distortions and ultimately unsubstantiated attacks on a public figure.I started this book in an attempt to balance Anne Coulter's book "Slander." Ms. Coulter's sources stand up to deep investigation, Mr. Phillips does not! In fact this is a great book to use as an example of Ms. Coulter's points!
Rating: 
Summary: Erudite, but enlightening
Review: If you can get past the vitriol (which many probably can't), this is an extraordinary piece of research. I was actually afraid of politics after having read this. It makes it hard to believe we almost elected George W. Bush our president. Oh, wait...
Rating:
Summary: Bias plus author fees plus freedom of speech = garbage
Review: Anyone who is politically aware knows the Kevin Phillips and Adrianna Huffington story. This book is garbage and does little to advance the understanding of an era where American leadership can do so much to set the tone for a more secure and free world. Kevin Phillips needs to listed under the Amazon section of "Comic Books".
Rating: 
Summary: Eye-opener for a Republican
Review: As a longtime Republican I was sure I would despise the book and the way it is written is definitely too one-sided. Yet one cannot deny the numerous facts it reveals and I will definitely vote against the Bush administration in 2004. They are not leading this country in the right direction.
Rating:
Summary: Predictably biased
Review: Normally I would have believed Phillips. But after watching Meet The Press and hearing the truth from Pres. Bush, I now realize that this book is just another example of dirty politics. You can skip this unless you enjoy reading fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah! What did happened to the reviews?
Review: If this isn't a perfect example of manipulating a book, then I don't know what is. Phillips like Howard Dean, comes out of the gate fast and then fizzles out fast. And look at all of the "unhlepful votes" on the under 1 star reviews. Something smells here?hmmmmmm?
Rating:
Summary: Bad, bad book
Review: I am a liberal Democrat, so I was predisposed to like this book. It is the worst book I have read in ages. Phillips excels at innuendo. He does no original, scholarly research and quotes other books as his sources without wearing out any shoe leather . The structure of the book is horrible. He hops around wildly and uses filler shamelessly. Shame on the publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful Book With a Few Odd Jags
Review: With little question, much of the reportage in Kevin Phillips' "American Dynasty" is exactly the kind of thing that the major American media should have been doing prior to the 2000 election. Phillips exposes, in startling detail, the Bush family's ties to the Religious Right, big oil and the munitions complex and, in particular, how the family's longstanding relationships with all of these have reached full flower with GW Bush. Particularly damning is the chapter on the family's and the current president's relationship to some of the more fanatical elements of the Religious Right. With that said, Phillips does go off on some odd jags that will strike some readers as beyond the pale and a little nutty. In Phillips' hands, the sparse record around Prescott Bush's alleged dealings with Nazi Germany probably gets more attention than it should. Some of these more conspiratorial elements of "American Dynasty" keep this indictment from being absolutely first-rate, but do not ultimately derail the book's stronger elements. Many other reviewers have dismissed Phillips as "bitter" or trying to "foment class warfare." To such criticisms, I think it's important to consider Phillips' background. Phillips is most famous for having written "The Emerging Republican Majority," and for having been a kind of political soothsayer who predicted the realignment that led to the end of the New Deal liberal coalition. Phillips made his greatest mark during a time of real intellectual ferment in the Republican Party -- when the ascendency of neo conservatism was breathing new life into the conservative movement, and real, serious ideas were being generated. Judging from this fact, and from reading other of Phillips' books, such as "Boiling Point" or "Wealth and Democracy," or "The Politics of Rich and Poor" or his famous feuds with elitists, such as William F. Buckley Jr., Phillips is clearly a person who cares about all levels on the socioeconomic spectrum, and not just the plutocracy. It's easy to see why he would be so bothered by a family that embodies all the worst elements of the modern Republican Party. If only from the tone of "American Dynasty," I have no doubt that Phillips is, in fact, greatly upset with the current status of the Republican Party of which he was long a member, and its wholesale embrace of crony capitalism and kooky religionists afraid of the teaching evolution. But unlike some of my fellow reviewers, I think Phillips' obvious disenchantment makes this book more powerful -- not less.
Rating:
Summary: It is worse than you think and they are blowing up the world
Review: In 2000, I basically voted against Bush because of the GOP's party positions, and my insider knowlledge of Texas Government. Since the governor is constitutionally limited to a figurehead role, a former party boy such as Bush would be somebody's puppet---with very disasterous results for the country. The results he was claiming as a campaign record was really somebody else's very hard work. If you have not done so already, stop guessing because the puppet master is daddy (Bush Sr.) and their big business friends. Apparently enraged about loosing the White House in 1992 (funny how the GOP usually attacks public housing residents except when they are the residents!) the Republicans swore revenge against the Democratic Party AND America itself. Instead of being an abberation, the much hyped Florida election scandal was a warm-up act for our far worse current sittuation. A pledge to find Osama Bin Laden magically transformed into a hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction, before once again changing into a mandate to remove Saddam Hussein from office supposedly for the good of the country. It is also little wonder that Ricin was found at the U.S. Capitol building the very day long-awaited hearings on the Bush administration's internal policy failures were supposed to convene. Keep this book by your side as you (try to) watch the administration's publically televised speeches (however painfull/hillarious the proces) and see how many people from Bush I share ties to the current administration. Logic has little bearing on policy decsisions when you are a power hungry elitist who cannot bring themselves to understand the American government has a duty to all people. I know the U.S. political process has reached a sorry state of affairs when I reflect back to the early days of the Bush regime. Then the worst myself (and anybody with common sense) imagined him doing was taking away our reproductive rights or setting up a white house office of religion, both of which are very penny ante compared to the depravity we've actually been subjected to in the name of 'national security'. The Bushes may be attempting to create a Republican answer to the Kennedy's but even at their worst, the latter actually understood the importance of giving a caring veneer towards less fortunate populations. By contrast, the Bushes seem genuinely offended at having to realize that women want sociopolitical equality, and there are other religions in the United States beyond fundamentalist Christianity. History will judge the Bush family as a horrible experiment foisted upon the American people. History books are after all, not kind to evil beings.
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Summary: we need to know more about the people we elect
Review: For those of you one star reviewers that claim that this is just a bunch of lies, go check out his facts. I easily found many of them by just Google searching, etc. What he has done with this book has put it all together so that we have it displayed in one book. This is an important book in that it does a wonderful job of showing us how the Bush family became so prominent and powerful and why it is not in the best interest of this country to have any one family, no matter who it is, in control of so much power. After reading this book it is abundantly clear to me that we, the people, need to look very closely at the people we vote for and those that they represent, again, regardless of party. Don't just believe what the politicians tell us, look to see what they have actually done to support the issues they say they support. This is one of the best books out right now and I encourage any of you that are interested in our country and the history of the family that has become so prominent in our government and how they got to that point. This is a book written by a Republican who cares about our country. It is for all of us regardless of our party affiliation.
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