Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House Author: Peter Baker | Language: English | ISBN:
B00CK8CJVS | Format: EPUB
Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House Description
In Days of Fire, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, takes us on a gripping and intimate journey through the eight years of the Bush and Cheney administration in a tour-de-force narrative of a dramatic and controversial presidency.
Theirs was the most captivating American political partnership since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger: a bold and untested president and his seasoned, relentless vice president. Confronted by one crisis after another, they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. In Days of Fire, Peter Baker chronicles the history of the most consequential presidency in modern times through the prism of its two most compelling characters, capturing the elusive and shifting alliance of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney as no historian has done before. He brings to life with in-the-room immediacy all the drama of an era marked by devastating terror attacks, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and financial collapse.
The real story of Bush and Cheney is a far more fascinating tale than the familiar suspicion that Cheney was the power behind the throne. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with key players, and thousands of pages of never-released notes, memos, and other internal documents, Baker paints a riveting portrait of a partnership that evolved dramatically over time, from the early days when Bush leaned on Cheney, making him the most influential vice president in history, to their final hours, when the two had grown so far apart they were clashing in the West Wing. Together and separately, they were tested as no other president and vice president have been, first on a bright September morning, an unforgettable “day of fire” just months into the presidency, and on countless days of fire over the course of eight tumultuous years.
Days of Fire is a monumental and definitive work that will rank with the best of presidential histories. As absorbing as a thriller, it is eye-opening and essential reading.
- File Size: 9434 KB
- Print Length: 816 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (October 22, 2013)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00CK8CJVS
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,094 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > 21st Century - #15
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Executive Branch - #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Federal Government
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > 21st Century - #15
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Executive Branch - #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Federal Government
Books about the Presidency of George W. Bush generally tend to go in two directions: the more common Bush bashfests, or the less common "Bush was right" tomes. New York Times Chief White House correspondent Peter Baker opts for a more objective analysis of both the Bush Presidency and of Bush the President, and in doing so writes a most interesting accounting of both. Baker's retelling has an added dimension that has never been as carefully considered: the complicated relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In doing all of this, Baker dispels several myths and misconceptions and gives the reader a fresh perspective that differs from the George W. Bush seen in the 24 hour news cycles of the last decade.
The first part of the book seems repetitive of stories that have been told before: the controversial 2001 election, the September 11th attacks and the build-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some readers may think, "Bob Woodward has already written about all of this." But much of Baker's focus is on the relationship between Bush and Cheney, and to a lesser extent, Bush and Karl Rove. Baker demonstrates how, in the early stages of his presidency, Bush relied on Cheney (and to a lesser extent on Rove) for guidance, and how Bush grew in the job to the point where Cheney was relegated almost to the point of irrelevance. According to Baker, stories about Cheney being the puppet-master have no validity.
For those of us on this side of the Atlantic, US politics has only a marginal relevance in normal times, especially since the end of the Cold War. But following the atrocity of 9/11, Bush was suddenly thrust on to the world stage in a way he had not anticipated and overnight his pronouncements and actions became as important over here as those of our own leaders – especially since Blair instantly committed the UK to go along with the US wherever Bush might lead them. As a result, the Bush presidency is to me the most interesting of modern times.
In this book, Peter Baker, the Chief White House Correspondent of the New York Times, sets out to examine the relationship between Bush and Vice-President Cheney – an unusual relationship from the start since Cheney made it clear that he had no intention to run for the presidency at any point in the future. The received wisdom back in the early years was that Bush was a bumbling buffoon riding on his father’s achievements; and that Cheney, one of his father’s henchmen, was the power behind the throne – a shadowy and rather machiavellian figure – the puppet-master. Baker’s position is that Cheney’s influence was strong in the early years and that his support after 9/11 was crucial, but that ultimately Bush was his own man even then, and that Cheney’s influence gradually waned as time passed.
Baker’s account is very heavily weighted towards foreign affairs and the 'war on terror', particularly Iraq, presumably because this is the area in which Cheney was most involved. Although domestic policies are discussed from time to time, the coverage of them is nothing like as detailed or insightful.
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