The Bushes

Portrait of a Dynasty

By: Peter Schweizer, Rochelle Schweizer

Narrated by: Harry Chase

Get the inside story on America’s most powerful political dynasty.


President George W. Bush leads our nation in a time of unprecedented peril. But how well do we really know him or his remarkable family, whose history often mirrors the history of America? Now, in the first full-scale biography of the Bushes, Peter and Rochelle Schweizer trace the extraordinary trajectory of their rise to power.

Through a series of exclusive, surprisingly candid interviews with members of the family and close friends, the inner workings of this very private family are revealed: their marriages and friendships; the intense sibling rivalry between George W. and Jeb Bush; divisions between father and son over the Iraq war; even Jeb Bush’s plans to run for president in 2008. Never-before-seen private photos add even greater detail and depth to this fascinating family portrait.

And above all, we see George W. Bush the way his family does, as an intensely driven person who has a much more complex relationship with his father than has often been portrayed in the media. Family members talk about how he deals with the stresses of the war on terrorism, why he sees it as a “religious war,” and how his personal faith influences what he says and does.

The Schweizers also delve into the Bushes’ sensitive and secret business dealings, including their long history of involvement in the oil business. Their shrewd alliances with other American dynasties—including the Kennedys, Rockefellers, and Tafts—have all helped to quietly consolidate their power within the Republican Party.
Indeed, what makes the Bushes so successful is that they function less like the great political families before them and more like a high-tech startup: free-flowing, pragmatic, and opportunistic. It is this distinction that assures them an enduring presence on the nation’s political stage, making The Bushes essential reading for anyone who cares about America’s future.©2004 Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer; (P)2004 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“In The Bushes, the Schweizers give us an Adams Chronicles for the twenty-first century—an unforgettable group portrait of a family whose reticence is matched by its ambition. More than a dynastic saga, this elegantly written, often surprising account traces the cultural migration of the American Establishment, and the personal transformation of George W. Bush. A marvelous biography, of a country as well as a family.”
—Richard Norton Smith, author of Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation and An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover

“The Schweizers have penetrated to the heart of the Bush family. This is as close as anyone has ever been able to get.”
—Doug Wead, author of All the Presidents’ Children, and former aide to both Bush presidents

“Peter and Rochelle Schweizer provide an intimate and absorbing account of a family so secure in its aristocratic cocoon that its sons venture forth with courage bordering on abandon to the battlefields of business, war, and national politics. Here is a competitive family culture that showers its sons with wealth, elite education, and priceless connections, and then sends them out to earn what they have already received. Without the searing will of a patriarch like Joseph Kennedy, the heroic imagination of Teddy Roosevelt, the focused brilliance of the Adams family, the Bushes have still managed to elect two presidents while networking an international galaxy of the wealthy and the powerful.”
—Robert Zelnick, Chairman of the Department of Journalism at Boston University, former ABC News correspondent, and author of Gore: A Political Life

Watered down and never critical

If you are looking for a detailed look at the Bush family, then this is the wrong book for you. Contentious issues such as George W's days in the Texas Air National Guard are glossed over and there are few critical words for anyone in the family - as if the book was personally edited by a family member. Perhaps the unabridged version has the details this version lacks. If you are looking for real insight into the Bush family and how they operate, look elsewhere. If you just want the Official Whitehouse version in a 'lite' version then this might be fine. One other thing, the reader sounds like he is reading a bedtime story to a child, not a book for adults.

General Waste of Time

Unless you are preparing to impress your republican friends with a sugar watered history of the Bushes, this audio book is worthless. No new information here, none. The glaring gaps in the story of how the Bushes came power qualifies this book as propaganda both for the family and the republican party.

Really? don't waste your money or time on this one.