American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House

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		American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House
		American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House

基本信息·出版社：Penguin Books
·页码：416 页
·出版日期：2004年09月
·ISBN：0143034316
·条形码：9780143034315
·版本：第1版
·装帧：平装
·开本：20开 Pages Per Sheet
·外文书名：美国王朝: 布什家族的发迹和政治欺骗

内容简介 Publisher Comments :
The Bushes are the family nobody really knows, says Kevin Phillips. This popular lack of acquaintance — nurtured by gauzy imagery of Maine summer cottages, gray-haired national grandmothers, July Fourth sparklers, and cowboy boots — has let national politics create a dynasticized presidency that would have horrified America's founding fathers. They, after all, had led a revolution against a succession of royal Georges.

In this devastating book, onetime Republican strategist Phillips reveals how four generations of Bushes have ascended the ladder of national power since World War One, becoming entrenched within the American establishment — Yale, Wall Street, the Senate, the CIA, the vice presidency, and the presidency — through a recurrent flair for old-boy networking, national security involvement, and political deception. By uncovering relationships and connecting facts with new clarity, Phillips comes to a stunning conclusion: The Bush family has systematically used its financial and social empire — its "aristocracy" — to gain the White House, thereby subverting the very core of American democracy. In their ambition, the Bushes ultimately reinvented themselves with brilliant timing, twisting and turning from silver spoon Yankees to born-again evangelical Texans. As America — and the world — holds its breath for the 2004 presidential election, American Dynasty explains how it happened and what it all means.

Amazon.com
Paraphrasing a passage from Machiavelli's The Prince, Kevin Phillips writes, "a ruler can ignore the mob and devote himself to the interests of the ruling class, gulling the inert majority who constitute the ruled." He then says, "Borgia references aside, 21st-century American readers of The Prince may feel that they have stumbled on a thinly disguised Bush White House political memo." These pointed words would sting regardless of who uttered them, but coming from Phillips, a former Republican strategist, they have an added piquancy. In American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Phillips traces the rise of the Bush family from investment banking elites to political power brokers, using their Ivy League network, vast wealth, and questionable political maneuvering to obtain the White House and consequently, shake the foundation of constitutional American democracy. Citing the Bush family mainstays of finance, energy (oil), the military industrial complex, and national security and intelligence (the CIA), Phillips uses copious examples to show the dangerous alliance between the Bushes' business interests (huge corporations such as Enron and Haliburton) and the formation of national policy. No other family, Phillips says, that has fulfilled its presidential aspirations has been so involved in the ascendancy of the arms industry and of the 21st-century American imperium--often at the expense of regional and world peace and for their personal gain.

It is hard to tell what offends Phillips the most: the Bushes' systematic deceit and secrecy, their shady business dealings, their cronyism, or their family philosophy that privileges the very wealthy and utterly dismisses all the rest. It is clearly all of these things combined. But at the top of Phillips' list is the dynastic nature of their family power, for it is that concentration of power and influence that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Past administrations have transgressed, albeit not so egregiously, and other political families have had dynastic ambitions. But none have succeeded as thoroughly as the Bushes. Jefferson and Madison would be horrified, and according to Phillips, we should be too.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Silvana Tropea

From Publishers Weekly
Political and economics commentator Phillips (The Politics of Rich and Poor, etc.) believes we are facing an ominous time: "As 2004 began, [a] Machiavellian moment was at hand. U.S. president George W. Bush... was a dynast whose family heritage included secrecy and calculated deception." Phillips perceives a dangerous, counterdemocratic trend toward dynasties in American politic-she cites the growing number of sons and wives of senators elected to the Senate as an example. Perhaps less convincingly, he compares the "restoration" of the Bushes to the White House after an absence of eight years to the royal restorations of the Stuarts in England in 1660 and the Bourbons in France in 1814. To underscore the dangers of inherited wealth and power, Phillips delineates a complex case involving a network of moneyed influence going back generations, as well as the Bushes' long-time canny involvement in oil and foreign policy (read: CIA) and, he says, bald-faced appeasement of the nativist/fundamentalist wing that, according to Phillips, is now "dangerously" dominating the GOP. Casting a critical eye at the entire Bush clan serves the useful function of consolidating a wealth of information, especially about forebears George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush. Phillips's own status as a former Republican (now turned independent) boosts the force of his argument substantially. Not all readers will share Phillips's alarmist response to the Bush "dynasty," but his book offers an important historical context in which to understand the rise of George W.

From Book News Annotation
In this New York Times bestseller, a commentator who is a former Republication and White House strategist traces four generations of the Bush family in the context of the "dynastization" of America. Phillips explores the elite Bush-Walker family's longstanding ties to Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. Appended material probes further into their early armaments deals and the current President's patterns of deception. The book is dedicated to President Eisenhower.

About Author
Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. A former White House strategist, he is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and NPR and writes for Harper's and Time. His books include the New York Times bestsellers The Politics of Rich and Poor and Wealth and Democracy.

Book Dimension
Height (cm) 21.3 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (cm) 14.1
媒体推荐 Reviews
"It's solid, well-researched and thoughtful. Along with The Price of Loyalty...American Dynasty deserves to be taken seriously by every American who plans to vote in November, whether Republican or Democrat."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Rocky Mountain News

"Phillips's own status as a former Republican...boosts the force of his argument substantially. Not all readers will share Phillips's alarmist response to the Bush 'dynasty,' but his book offers an important historical context in which to understand the rise of George W."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Publishers Weekly

"There are many Bush-bashing books out there....[This one] is more wide ranging, more scholarly, and in many ways, more disturbing....[It] will generate much debate in the coming months."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Ilene Cooper, Booklist

"Mr. Phillips is eloquent on the continuing fallout of American decisions, beginning in the 70's, to pour huge amounts of armaments into the tinderbox of the Persian Gulf and Middle East, into countries 'menaced by religious and resource conflicts.'"
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Phillips paints a portrait that can only be deeply disturbing to anyone concerned about how power is now gained and maintained in this country ? American Dynasty is an important, troubling book that should be read everywhere with care, nowhere more so than in this city."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

"Phillips' book is complex but well-documented. Critical as it is of the Bushes, it's not a hatchet job. It's a call to thinking about all politics, and not just the 'American dynasty' of the Bushes."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Kansas City Star

"This book is not pleasant bedtime reading, but a bill of particulars for a prosecutor seeking a criminal indictment....Phillips has plenty of information in his angry indictment..."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Phillips' book should be of enormous interest for its expert elucidation of one prominent American family's history in the unfolding of 20th century politics." 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　San Francisco Chronicle

"Phillips has compiled many fascinating facts but not always rigorously assessed them. Mixed in are too many speculative scraps."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Los Angeles Times

"Informed and lively....If some of Phillips' conclusions are stronger than others, it is not hard to see how he arrived at them."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

"American Dynasty is so sober and steeped in learning that readers will wonder how President Bush, or any man's family, could stand this depth of exposure....[It] is as depressing as it is brilliant and important."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Chicago Sun-Times

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