Rating: 
Summary: Casper the Ghost
Review: Ron Lewis is right about one-star reviews disappearing. Mine was one of them. Like other reviewers I also tried to read this book, but could only get so far before I couldn't go on. I also agree that this book starts with its own conclusions and grabs for facts and speculation to back them up. The only thing good about the book is the cover picture of W and his Dad. Good picture.
Rating: 
Summary: Crimes of the American Plutocracy Exposed
Review: Kevin Phillips, the author of this scathing expose, will have you believing that even a neer- do- well buffoon like Cato Kaelin could become a U.S. President if he were raised a Bush and had access to the same social and business networks. The last 150 years of the Bush family ascendancy have led to the formation of a tightnit family/ cult that is preoccupied with oil and energy, national defense and intelligence, the military industrial complex, and financial investments (good picks as it has turned out because all four elements have abounded). Each Bush has proven to be remarkably similar in occupation, outlook and ethical shortcomings over the last four generations. All the Bush men revere the family lore and follow in daddy's footsteps. A tacit family agenda has been inculcated into each new generation. The Bush legacy, er dynasty, is traced back to the Tudor and Plantagenet royal families that once reigned over England. Phillips cites Burke's Peerage as saying that George W. is the most blue blooded of all Presidents. I guess Buchanan wasn't so off base when he called George H.W. "King George" in 1992. What comes across in this book is that the Bushes are not overly original or scheming, definitely not conspiratory material, but rather closeted WASPs that are opportunistic, extremely well connected and benefitting from quite a bit of dumb luck. The Bush agenda has been in line with broad social developments such as the rise of the number of investors, the polarization of the classes, the emergence of the South as a conservative haven, etc. It seems to me after reading this book that their agenda is not any different than most old line WASPs. This WASP family has just been closer over the generations, more focused, more ruthless, more hungry for political power and benefited more from certain unforseen trends like Texas becoming a political hotbed and training pool for wannabee Presidents. It is not evil for the Bushes to have built vast social networks, spheres of influence, and to have sent their children to Yale. You can't blame them as it has worked well for them and they are not crooked per se. In every Western country there is the equivalent of American elites. The business and political cronyism in Japan, Korea, England, etc. are much worse as the author cites. This book's research is amazing and its strength. The obscure facts and side notes are almost too much... almost nauseating. It gives a no- holds- barred view of the extent of old guard privelege, cronyism, and nepotism at the top rungs of business and politics. The author's account of a rising psuedo- arristocracy is provocative. Yes America, meritocracy and social mobility are frequently illusions. Big business and the top 1% of wage earners have disproportionate political power. The Bushes are essentially big business and "kindler gentler" and "compassionate conservative" are as sincere as "read my lips." The weaknesses of this book are that the author does not expect the readers to already know this. Also, the author thinks that the ideals of the founding fathers can be realized in modern times. True equality and justice for all could only come about by destroying big companies, destroying social networks and ceasing the assets of elites. We would all have to become small farmers again. This will never happen (I hope).
Rating:
Summary: Comfort Food or Garbage, depending on your point of view
Review: If you hate George W. Bush, then by all means, dig in. You'll feel better after you finish this. Kevin Phillips has always (but ever more so with the passage of time) seemed to be an angry, shrill man, and he has written an angry, shrill book. Personally, I think we're all ready for something different. He has a more sober writing style than Al Franken, but don't be fooled by the lack of humor: this is actually an even less consequential book than "Lying Liars." There are real and interesting questions about the Bushes, but Phillips never addresses them because he seems to focused on propagating class warfare.
Rating:
Summary: a clear case of checking out the people you vote for
Review: Kevin Phillips has done a wonderful job of showing us the Bush family and its rise to power. So many others have given you a good look at the contents of the book so I will not go into depth about, but rather to say that through his book, the author has made it abundantly clear that we, the people, who elect those that are suppose to represent us, need to know more about the people we elect. We need to know who they represent. Too many of us vote for the party without even knowing the person we have voted for, what they stand for, etc. because that's what we've always done and we were too busy concentrating on our own lives to stop and bother with that annoying distraction. That is what the politicians have been counting on. Now, we are paying for it. So, the author didn't just give us a look at the Bush family and its rise to power, he gave us an incentive to look at who we vote for more closely, regardless of party. I say this, because we have both good and bad politicians in both parties, we just need to dig a little. What Kevin has written about in this book is something that we all could've found out if we'd taken the time to dig for it. He just did us a great favor in putting it together for us in this very informative book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about our country and those who run it. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Dynasty Conspiracy Theory
Review: This is a very well researched book, as mentioned by many enthusiastic reviewers. The book is very well written and has been already very successful with the Bush bashing readers. If you are among them, I'd have to recommend the book as I am sure you will enjoy it tremendously. However, I'll share with you why I am less enthusiastic about this book than others. It is certainly not because I am a Bush lover. I am actually an Independent, and am very seriously considering voting for Kerry in November. Phillips is obsessed by the fact that the Bushes produced the first father-and-son Presidency since the Adams did nearly two hundred years ago. Let's face it, if Dubya had not been elected in 2000, Phillips would have had to find another subject for his book. But, somehow he did. This allowed Phillips to develop his Dynasty Theory. Phillips investigative drive would have you believe that the Bushes were elected into the top political spot in good part due to the influence associated with their powerful connections from their membership in the Skull and Bones secret Yale society. Also, energy and defense industry special interests were to have a major influence in the Bushes political success. And, they certainly must have to some degree. Just tracking the money trail alone, one can observe these special interest groups and others represented a significant percentage of the campaign donations the Bushes raised. So, Phillips certainly scores many reasonably strong points on his history of influence. However, the dominant factors of the Bushes successes (and failures) in Presidential elections were external factors beyond their control. In 1988, Bush Sr. rode the coat tail of Ronald Reagan, one of the most popular president in modern times. And, probably even more importantly, Bush Sr. benefited from a strong economy associated with one of the longest economic expansion and Bull market in the post WWII era. Those are the forces that truly placed Bush Sr. in the White House in 1988. These same type of forces are the ones who took him out in 1992. Indeed, in 1992 the Reagan coat tail factor was gone, and the economy went bust. And, Bush was cleanly ousted from the White House. The success of Bush Jr. in 2000 is also rather easily explainable. The roaring nineties were already coming apart. So, Gore could say the Clinton - Gore economic record was excellent looking back. But, going forward the economic record was looking a bit foggy and uncertain already. That sets a stage when the electorate is ripe for change. This is especially true after an 8 year reign of the same party at the White House. Additionally, Gore had to be one of the weakest campaigners, speakers, and overall democratic candidates in modern times. Add to that a "Perfect Storm' set of highly unlikely statistical events associated with a virtual tie between Bush and Gore that was broken only by the Supreme Court; and there you have it. Bush Jr. got in the White House. Whether Bush Jr. will get reelected this year in 2004 is hard to tell. But, if we look at some external forces, the wind is behind him right now. The economy is strong. So, if he gets reelected Phillips and company will say "I told you so"; But, the answer is "it's the economy stupid" and not much else. So, where Phillips sees influence of quasi American monarchies at play and a broken democracy; others will see a much more realistic scenario of external forces at play, mainly economics and security, and a democratic system that works just fine thank you very much. If Bush Jr. looses, well it is the end of the Dynasty Theory anyway. For my part, I would recommend a far better book on a related subject: 'The Price of Loyalty' by Ron Suskind with the assistance of Paul O'Neill, former Secretary of the Treasury. If you have serious reservations about the current Bush presidency, this book will confirm them. 'The Price of Loyalty' is much better grounded, and has more powerful insights than 'American Dynasty.' True insider account wins out handily over the Dynasty Conspiracy Theory.
Rating:
Summary: Not merely about the Bushes, but about the nation as a whole
Review: I have to admit by being completely surprised by this book. From the title and from reading the dust jacket, it sounded a tad conspiratorial to me, as if it were trying to force a template on history that wasn't there. But Phillips's case about the worldview that the Bush and Walker families generated that determined the policies and points of view and values of both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush is close to overwhelming. I expected going into the book that it would be mildly informative; coming out, I have to say that no book that I have read on either of the Bushes (and I have at this point read pretty all of them) has been as informative and as full of insight as this one. It is essential to stress two things. First, unlike some of the one star reviewers who obviously haven't cracked the book, Phillips means this as a warning against all political dynasties, which was, in fact, a major concern of the Founding Fathers. They were terrified of political families whose influence would extend from one generation to another. And this fear persisted well into the 19th century. Anyone doubting this should read a good biography of John Quincy Adams. Phillips points out early in the book that the Kennedy family was a bit of a dynasty (and would have been one for certain had Robert F. Kennedy not been assassinated in 1968), and he acknowledges that if Hillary Clinton were to run and win in 2008 that would also constitute a dynasty. His decision to focus on the Bush/Walker family derives from the fact that they in fact have had two presidencies in less than a decade, as well as other members of the family holding other political positions (Preston Bush was a U.S. Senator and Jeb Bush a governor). Second, this book is an exploration of many of the ills of the political system. The faults and flaws are not tied merely to the personalities of Bush 41 and Bush 43, but are systemic and run across the political spectrum, and across the political spectrum. Put simply, the problem is the dominance of the industrial-military complex that Eisenhower tried to warn us against (though Phillips would characterize it as the industrial-military-investment-energy-secret service complex). In "Who is an Author?" Michel Foucault argued that the author was a nexus through which all of society produced a book. In a sense, Bush 41 and Bush 43 are merely conduits through which the great conglomerate that Phillips describes with such clarity makes concrete its goals. Even if Bush 43 is defeated in 2004, this complex is not going to go away. Bush is part of the problem, but merely a part. The power of the book derives from the deep background he provides of the founders of the Bush/Walker dynasty. Ironically, although two Bushes have become president, the real founding of the family came on the Walker side. George Herbert Walker, Bush 41's maternal grandfather, is the Joseph Kennedy of the Walker/Bush clan. Every indication is that Preston Bush, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush are marginally gifted individuals, with no real abilities of their own, who have managed to be successful because of the mass of extraordinarily high-level connections established by George Herbert Walker. It was through Walker that the two families became allied with many of the most powerful individuals in 20th century American life, connections that Bush 41 and Bush 43 have exploited over and over and over again. I had read before about key individuals who had assisted, say, Bush 43 in ventures like Arbusto or Bush 41 in the Zapata oil operations, but reading of the individuals who would step is with enormous investments meant little to me. But those investors were without exception individuals who had become aligned with the family through George Herbert Walker. These are classic instances of what is known as crony capitalism, which has been key to the ascent of both Bushes to the White House. Phillips does a magnificent job at detailing the family connections to the investment world, the world of oil and energy, to the Middle East (extending back not merely to the first president, but to George Herbert Walker and his massive business ties to the region in the 1920s and thereafter), and (largely through their Yale connections and through Walker's business ties) to the intelligence community, and especially the CIA. Most disturbing is the way he describes the family's enormously circumscribed view of economics. Essentially, the family knows nothing of business or economics outside the narrow purview of investment (even their connections with oil and energy has been on the investment side). They have little knowledge or contact with industry or small business or, really, any aspect of the economy outside of investing. Therefore, the family assumption is that if you take care of investors, you have taken care of the only thing in an economy that matters. If investors are doing well, you needn't pay direct attention to any other facet of the economy, like jobs or manufacturing capacity. Although many economists are deeply concerned about the current state of the U.S. economy (with gigantic deficits, enormous debt to nations like China, and continued employment difficulties), from the narrow view of the Bushes, things are good because they have taken care of the investment class. I heartily recommend this book to anyone concerned with the current state of politics in America. It is not, as I said, merely a book on the Bushes, but on many of the things truly wrong today in America. Essential reading.
Rating:
Summary: More proof that we have scum posing as statesmen
Review: Even the man who wrote "The Coming Republican Majority" admits that the Bushes are a disgrace to everything American. Maybe Anne Coutler can finally write a book about the REAL traitors to this country. Of course, the right-wing will just call this "liberal" crap and go on shutting their minds to what filth like the Bushes are doing and have done to destroy the greatness of the USA. Every time someone says "Thank God for Bush!", Satan (if he exists) must be laughing.
Rating:
Summary: Can you say "mind numbing political diatribe"?
Review: I bought this book with hope that it would present a sober and learned look at the Bush family, their roots and the connections which brought them to power. Although I am a moderate Republican, I do not consider myself an ideolog and am quite open to seeing situations from all perspectives. However this book starts with conclusions and lines up facts to support them. Hard as I tried to read past the authors too obvious political agenda, I ended up just throwing the book on the floor after only 75 pages. The telling example is that the author finds an "errie physical resemblance" between G.H.W. Bush and G.W. Bush. WOW that's suspicious !!!!!! Good lord ... they are father and son. My son looks like me. Why is that weird? Save your money and go read a bathroom wall somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Makes good fiction...what happened to the reviews?
Review: Apparently Phillips is afraid of truth or even opinion. A lot of reviews (1 stars only) have been deleted. This book is not selling very well in the book stores and no matter how many more 1 star reviews Phillips deletes, we'll be right back not only here at Amazon but even more importantly in book stores letting people know what is really going on with this book . 1 star for a lousy book. No stars for the authors lack of integrity and grit to face up to the facts that people really don't like this author or his crappy junk.
Rating:
Summary: The most important book of the year.
Review: The truth at last about George W Bush and his father! Kevin Phillips makes a compelling, seamless case that the Bush administration and family serves not the interests of the American people but of themselves and their narrow class of oil- and armaments-rich crony crony capitalists. The election of George W., Phillips makes clear, is nothing more nor less than the restoration of a devious and ambitious dynasty. Every American who cares about the future of this country and our place in the world should read this brilliant analysis.
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