Reviews

The Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg

tommyhousworth's review against another edition

4.0

The most accessible assessment of 'what went wrong'. Big hat, no cattle.

kurtadb's review against another edition

3.0

Weisberg sets up an interesting prism for viewing the failed Bush presidency -- his relationships with a number of other people (H.W., Cheney, Rove, etc.). It sometimes strays into shifting some of the blame onto these other actors, or explaining Bush's destructive policies as mere expressions of his flawed personality, but it's not quite an apologist book. The tragedy of the title, though, is not his presidency. It's more complicated than that -- more like the line of Bush men and Bush's life itself.

In the end, Weisberg seems to have a lot of good insight into the realities of the Bush world which is fascinating and maddening all at the same time, aside from the structure of the book. My biggest complaint was probably the last section of the book where it seems he's already made his point but he drags it out a bit in a way that seems a touch overly-insistent.

barrysweezey's review against another edition

George W. Bush covers his insecurity with swagger and his cluelessness with decisiveness. But you knew that.

barry_sweezey's review against another edition

George W. Bush covers his insecurity with swagger and his cluelessness with decisiveness. But you knew that.

cspiwak's review

3.0

I was only reading this becuase 3 years ago I decided to read a biography of each pres. I don't know that this was as balanced as it was purported to be . I came in with prejudices against the former president and they remained intact. It was heavy on the psychoanalysis and I loved the comparisons to Prince Hal, but I question its objectivity.