George H W Bush Popular Books
George H W Bush Biography & Facts
George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 43rd vice president from 1981 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan, and in various other federal positions prior to that. Born into a wealthy, established family in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. He attended Phillips Academy and served as a pilot in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II before graduating from Yale and moving to West Texas, where he established a successful oil company. Following an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate in 1964, he was elected to represent Texas's 7th congressional district in 1966. President Richard Nixon appointed Bush as the ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. President Gerald Ford appointed him as the chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and as the director of Central Intelligence in 1976. Bush ran for president in 1980 but was defeated in the Republican presidential primaries by Reagan, who then selected Bush as his vice presidential running mate. In the 1988 presidential election, Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove Bush's presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left office, Bush negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise by enacting legislation to raise taxes to justify reducing the budget deficit. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments. He also appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his turnaround on his tax promise, and the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate. After leaving office in 1993, Bush was active in humanitarian activities, often working alongside Clinton. With the victory of his son, George W. Bush, in the 2000 presidential election, the two became the second father–son pair to serve as the nation's president, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Another son, Jeb Bush, unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 primaries. Historians generally rank Bush as an above-average president. Early life and education (1924–1948) George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. He was the second son of Prescott Bush and Dorothy (Walker) Bush, and a younger brother of Prescott Bush Jr. His paternal grandfather, Samuel P. Bush, worked as an executive for a railroad parts company in Columbus, Ohio, while his maternal grandfather and namesake, George Herbert Walker, led Wall Street investment bank W. A. Harriman & Co. Walker was known as "Pop", and young Bush was called "Poppy" as a tribute to him. The Bush family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1925, and Prescott took a position with W. A. Harriman & Co. (which later merged into Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.) the following year. Bush spent most of his childhood in Greenwich, at the family vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, or at his maternal grandparents' plantation in South Carolina. Because of the family's wealth, Bush was largely unaffected by the Great Depression. He attended Greenwich Country Day School from 1929 to 1937 and Phillips Academy, an elite private academy in Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1942. While at Phillips Academy, he served as president of the senior class, secretary of the student council, president of the community fund-raising group, a member of the editorial board of the school newspaper, and captain of the varsity baseball and soccer teams. World War II On his 18th birthday, immediately after graduating from Phillips Academy, he enlisted in the United States Navy as a naval aviator. After a period of training, he was commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, becoming one of the youngest pilots in the Navy. Beginning in 1944, Bush served in the Pacific theater, where he flew a Grumman TBF Avenger, a torpedo bomber capable of taking off from aircraft carriers. His squadron was assigned to the USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, where his lanky physique earned him the nickname "Skin". Bush flew his first combat mission in May 1944, bombing Japanese-held Wake Island, and was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on August 1, 1944. During an attack on a Japanese installation in Chichijima, Bush's aircraft successfully attacked several targets but was downed by enemy fire. Though both of Bush's fellow crew members died, Bush successfully bailed out from the aircraft and was rescued by the submarine USS Finback. Several of the aviators shot down during the attack were captured and executed, and their livers were cannibalized by their captors. Bush's survival after such a close brush with death shaped him profoundly, leading him to ask, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?" He was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the mission. Bush returned to San Jacinto in November 1944, participating in operations in the Philippines. In early 1945, he was assigned to a new combat squadron, VT-153, where he trained to participate in an invasion of mainland Japan. Between March and May 1945, he trained in Auburn, Maine, where he and Barbara lived in a small apartment. On September 2, 1945, before any invasion took place, Japan formally surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bush was released from active duty that same month but was not formally discharged from the Navy until October 1955, when he had reached the rank of lieutenant. By the end of his period of active service, Bush had flown 58 missions, completed 128 carrier landings, and recorded 1228 hours of flight time. Marriage Bush met Barbara Pierce at a Christmas dance in Greenwich in December 1941, and, after a period of courtship, they became engaged in December 1943. While Bush was on leave from the Navy, they married in Rye, New York, on January 6, 1945. The Bushes enjoyed a strong marriage, and Barbara would later be a popular First Lady, seen by many as "a kind of national grandmother". They had six children: George W. (b. 1946), Robin (1949–1953), Jeb (b. 1953), Neil .... Discover the George H W Bush popular books. Find the top 100 most popular George H W Bush books.
Best Seller George H W Bush Books of 2024
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Barbara Bush
Barbara BushThe classic #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, celebrating the life and legacy of First Lady Barbara Bushupdated with new forewords from her five children, including reflections...
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Character Matters
Jean BeckerFormer Chief of Staff to President George H.W. Bush and New York Times bestselling author of The Man I Knew, Jean Becker shares touching and pivotal life lessons from a leader that...
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The Quiet Man
John SununuGeorge H. W. Bush’s former Chief of Staff offers a long overdue appreciation of the man and his universally underrated and misunderstood presidency.“I’m a quiet man, but I hear the...
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Reflections
Barbara Bush“There is a myth in the United Statesyou’ve heard it many times. It says that all American mothers hope that their child will grow up to be President of the United States...” Barba...
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Chester Barkingham Saves the Country
Julie FalatkoA White House dog teaches lawmakers how to be better humans in this hilarious picture book told in presidential memos!Good dog Chester Barkingham moves into his forever homethe Whi...
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The Man I Knew
Jean BeckerA heartfelt portrait of President George H.W. Bushand his postpresidential lifeby the confidante who knew him best.
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Spoken from the Heart
Laura BushIn this brave, beautiful, and deeply personal memoir, Laura Bush, one of our most beloved and private first ladies, tells her own extraordinary story. Born in the boomandbust ...
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Hotel Scarface
Roben FarzadThe wild, true story of the Mutiny, the hotel and club that embodied the decadence of Miami’s cocaine cowboys heydayand an inspiration for the blockbuster film, Scarface...In the s...
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The Columnist
Jeffrey FrankIt a cocktail party, George H. W. Bush encourages Brandon Sladder, the prominent Washington columnist, to write his memoirs. Sladder has, after all, known just about everyone of im...
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The Bush Crime Family
Roger Stone & Saint John Hunt"This book is very tough." President Donald TrumpThe Bush Crime Family smashes through the layers of lies and secrecy that have surrounded and protected our country’s most success...
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TIME George H.W. Bush
The Editors of TIMEWith determined grace and a steely dignity, George Herbert Walker Bush spent more than 40 years devoted to public service: First as a naval airman he would be the last president t...
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Witness to Dignity
Russell Levenson, Jr. & Jeb BushThis is the untold, intimate, and eyewitness account of the character, integrity, service, faith, and dignity of former President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush by th...
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George H. W. Bush
Timothy Naftali, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. & Sean WilentzThe judicious statesman who won victories abroad but suffered defeat at home, whose wisdom and demeanor served America well at a critical timeGeorge Bush was a throwback to a diffe...
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Character and Consequence
Robert A. StrongCharacter and Consequence by Robert A. Strong, looks at important foreign policy decisions of George H. W. Bush through the lens of character and asks how personal traits like loya...
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An American Life
Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan’s autobiography is a work of major historical importance. Here, in his own words, is the story of his lifepublic and privatetold in a book both frank and compellingly...
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The Last Republicans
Mark K. UpdegroveThis dual biography offers “a captivating, intimate portrait of one of the country's most important political dynasties”often in their own words (Doris Kearns Goodwin).In this reve...
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The Bush Tragedy
Jacob WeisbergThis is the book that cracks the code of the Bush presidency. Unstintingly yet compassionately, and with no political ax to grind, Slate editor in chief Jacob Weisberg methodically...
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Driving the Future
Margo T Oge & Fred KruppNow in paperback, with a new foreword by Fred Krupp, an expert's illuminating preview of the cleaner, lighter, smarter cars of the future.In Driving the Future, Margo T. Oge portra...
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George H. W. Bush
Curt SmithGeorge H. W. Bush ranks among America’s most distinguished men of the last century. A war hero, businessman, politician, and the fortyfirst president of the United States, Bush has...
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George H. W. Bush
Louann Atkins Temple[A] warm and compelling introduction to the personal and professional lives of our fortyfirst president. Readers young and old will find themselves wanting to know more about this ...
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The Great Rift
James MannThe Great Rift is a sweeping history of the intertwined careers of Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, whose rivalry and conflicting views of U.S. national security color our political d...
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George H.W. Bush
Kjell LejonThis book is the first to explore the religious dimension of President George H. W. Bush. Also, the author reconceptualizes the common use of civil religion in order to understand ...
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George H.W. Bush
Kjell O. LejonThis book is the first to explore the religious dimension of President George H. W. Bush. Also, the author reconceptualizes the common use of civil religion in order to understand ...
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Goliath
Matt Stoller“Every thinking American must read” (The Washington Book Review) this startling and “insightful” (The New York Times) look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism has t...
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A True Statesman
Robin Renwick"What we have been missing" – Henry Kissinger'If the United States does not lead, there will be no leadership. If the US instead turns inward, there will be a price to be paid late...
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Presidents in Crisis
Michael K BohnEvery American president, when faced with a crisis, longs to take bold and decisive action. When American lives or vital interests are at stake, the publicand especially the news m...
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When the World Seemed New
Jeffrey A. Engel“Engel’s excellent history forms a standingif unspokenrebuke to the retrograde nationalism espoused by Donald J. Trump.”The New York Times Book Review The collapse of t...
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Paul M. Cady and Another v. George H. Bush
Supreme Court of MinnesotaAction in the Crow Wing County District Court for the recovery of payments made by plaintiffs, Paul M. Cady and Olive Cady, pursuant to a contract allegedly induced by m...
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Ideals, Interests, and U.S. Foreign Policy from George H. W. Bush to Donald Trump
Ronald E. PowaskiThis volume discusses the presidential foreign policies of the post–Cold War era, beginning with George H. W. Bush and ending with the first 17 months of Donald Trump’s presidency....
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Why Governments Get It Wrong
Dennis C. GrubeNow with new Preface.'This humane, accessible and lucid work will enlighten any voter, and remind any wouldbe – or currently serving – politician of the pitfalls to avoid' – TLSAs ...
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Reagan
Bob SpitzFrom New York Times bestselling biographer Bob Spitz, a full and rich biography of an epic American life, capturing what made Ronald Reagan both so beloved and so transformational....
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A Passion for Leadership
Robert M. GatesFrom the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 bestselling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutio...
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Wasps
Michael Knox BeranAn examination of WASP culture through the lives of some of its most prominent figures. Envied and lampooned, misunderstood and yet distinctly American, WASPs are as much ...
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The China Diary of George H. W. Bush
Jeffrey A. EngelAvailable in print for the first time, this daybyday diary of George H. W. Bush's life in China opens a fascinating window into one of the most formative periods of his career. As ...
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The Spymasters
Chris WhippleFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, an “engaging…richly textured” (The New York Times), behindthescenes look at what it’s like to run the world’s most po...
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Why the Right Went Wrong
E.J. DionneFrom the author of Why Americans Hate Politics, the New York Times bestselling and “notably fairminded” (The New York Times Book Review), story of the GOP’s fracturingfrom the 1964...