". . . The George W. Bush Legacy is important, foundational reading for scholars who seek to understand how Bush will be understood in coming years and the lasting effects of his presidency on the office of the president."--Excerpt from a review in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Volume 38, Issue 3, Pages 551-553, written by Caroline Heldman, Occidental College The George W. Bush Legacy assesses the current president’s political strategy as well as his administration’s policies. With his two terms marked by global tension and intense partisanship, chapter authors look at the Bush administration’s efforts to influence the direction of the judiciary, expand executive power, institutionalize the 2001 tax cuts, deliver policies and appointments for favored “base” constituencies, and increase the size and reach of the national security state. Contributors also offer perspectives on the responses to the events of September 11, 2001—including the fateful decision to go to war in Iraq that has perhaps become the defining action of this presidency. Making the volume easy to use throughout a presidency course, each chapter focuses on one aspect of the Bush administration, ranging from the president’s leadership style and the influence of interest groups, to the effects of public opinion and the role of the courts. This authoritative book provides measured and nuanced appraisals of the short- and long-term impact of Bush’s accomplishments and failures at a particularly pivotal time in American history.

This book examines the legacy of the Bush presidency in term of presidential leadership, politics, and public policy. It focuses on Bush's expansion of presidential power in pursuit of the 'war on terror,' the ideological and pragmatic foundations of presidential politics, and the complexity of Bush's domestic and foreign policy legacies.

The presidency of George W. Bush is notable for the grand scale of its ambitions, the controversy that these ambitions generated, and the risks he regularly courted in the spheres of politics, economics, and foreign policy. Bush's ultimate goal was indeed ambitious: the completion of the conservative "regime change" first heralded by the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. But ironically this effort sewed the very discord that ultimately took root and emerged to frustrate Bush's plans, and may even have begun to unravel aspects of the Reagan revolution he sought to institutionalize. Politically, the Bush White House sought the entrenchment of consistent Republican electoral majorities. Institutionally, the Bush administration sought to preserve control of Congress by maintaining reliable partisan Republican majorities, and to influence the federal courts with a steady stream of conservative judicial appointees. The administration also sought increased autonomy over the executive branch by the aggressive use of executive orders and bureaucratic reorganizations in response to 9/11. Many of these efforts were at least partially successful. But ultimately the fate of the Bush presidency was tied to its greatest single gamble, the Iraq War. The flawed prosecution of that conflict, combined with other White House management failures and finally a slumping economy, left Bush and the Republican Party deeply unpopular and the victim of strong electoral reversals in 2006 and the election victory of Barack Obama in 2008. The American public had turned against the Bush agenda in great part because of the negative outcomes resulting from the administration's pursuit of that agenda. This book assembles prominent presidential scholars to measure the trajectory of Bush's aspirations, his accomplishments, and his failures. By examining presidential leadership, popular politics and policymaking in this context, the contributors begin the work of understanding the unique historical legacy of the Bush presidency.

"In this book, Bartlett attacks the Bush Administration's economic performance root and branch, from the "stovepiping" of its policy process to the coercive tactics used to ram its policies through Congress, to the effects of the policies themselves. He is especially hard on Bush s enormous new Medicare entitlement and predicts that within a few years, Bush's tax cuts and unrestricted spending will produce an economic crisis that will require a major tax increase, probably in the form of a European-style VAT."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume incisively analyzes the foreign policy of George W. Bush. Examining the legacy of the forty-third President, author Ilan Peleg explains the complex factors underlying the Bush Doctrine; neoconservative ideology, real and perceived challenges to US world supremacy, Bushs personality, the White Houses unique decision-making process, and the impact of September 11. Peleg argues that in its shift from deterrence and containment to prevention and preemption, from multilateral leadership to unilateral militarism, and from consensual realism to radical neo conservatism, the Bush administration has effected a true revolution in the foundational goals, as well as in the means, of US foreign policy. Peleg also offers a series of judicious recommendations for future administrations, including the reestablishment of a bipartisan consensus on foreign policy, increased emphasis on multilateralism, the demilitarization of US foreign policy, renewed focus on the resolution of serious regional conflicts, and more realistic expectations about non coerced democratization around the world.

Opinions of the Presidency of George W. Bush and his perceived legacy seem to exist only at the extremes. From the contentious outcome of the 2000 election, to the attacks on September 11, to the ongoing War in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the efforts to transform major domestic policies, and culminating with the financial crisis of 2008, it is little wonder that the name George W. Bush tends not to evoke lukewarm opinion. During his time in office, Bush obtained the highest approval ratings of any sitting president, but also the lowest. Scholars and other observers of the Bush Presidency have been similarly divided. Across the board, the presidency of George W. Bush raises questions that invite challenges to political scientists, scholarly questions of significant general interest. The authors in this volume begin the process of addressing some of these questions, with essays that cover an array of issues related to his presidency, and the legacy it leaves. This collection of essays presented at the Mount Union College Symposium on the Legacy of George W. Bush, seeks to provide some balance, offering some initial assessments of the consequences of this controversial president and his eventful tenure in office.

The first true character study of a lost president and his disastrous legacy In this fascinating, timely book, Glenn Greenwald examines the Bush presidency and its long-term effect on the nation, charting the rise and steep fall of the current administration, dissecting the rhetoric, and revealing the faulty ideals upon which George W. Bush built his policies. Enlightening and eye-opening, this is a powerful look at the man whose incapability and cowboy logic have left America at risk.