Guns and Butter (Bonnie Faulkner) KFPA - Family of Secrets with author Russ Baker - May 6, 2009
Guns and Butter - Family of Secrets - May 6, 2009 at 1:00pm
"Family of Secrets", The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put It In The White House, and What Their Influence Means For America, with author Russ Baker.
Family of Secrets
The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America
*********************************************************************************************************************
Russ Baker
http://www.bloomsburypress.com/books/catalog/family_of_secrets
The long-hidden story of a family we thought we knew—and of a power-making apparatus hat we have barely begun to comprehend.
After eight disastrous years, George W. Bush leaves office as one of the most unpopular presidents in American history. Russ Baker asks the question that lingers even as this benighted administration winds down: Who really wanted this man at the helm of the country, and why did his backers promote him despite his obvious liabilities and limitations? This book goes deep behind the scenes to deliver an arresting new look at George W. Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, their family, and the network of figures in intelligence, the military, finance, and oil who enabled the family's rise to power.
Baker's exhaustive investigation reveals a remarkable clan whose hermetic secrecy and code of absolute loyalty have concealed a far-reaching role in recent history that transcends the Bush presidencies. Baker offers new insights into lingering mysteries—from the death of John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon's downfall in Watergate. Here, too, are insider accounts of the backroom strategizing, and outright deception, that resulted in George W. Bush's electoral success.
Throughout, Baker helps us understand why we have not known these things before. Family of Secrets combines compelling narrative with eye-opening revelations. It offers the untold history of the machinations that have shaped American politics over much of the last century.
Award-winning investigative journalist Russ Baker has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Esquire, and served as Columbia Journalism Review contributing editor. Baker's appearances include NPR, Fox News, and Air America. In 2005, he founded the Real News Project, a nonprofit investigative news organization. His exclusive reporting on George W. Bush's military record received a 2005 Deadline Club award.
Praise for Russ Baker:
“In an era dominated by corporate journalism and an ideological right-wing media, Russ Baker's work stands out for its fierce independence, fact-based reporting, and concern for what matters most to our democracy. A lot of us look to Russ to tell us what we didn't know.”—Bill Moyers, author and host, Bill Moyers' Journal (PBS)
“Russ Baker has the three most important attributes of any great investigative reporter: He is skeptical, he [missing space] is fearless, and he is indefatigable. Whenever he examines anything—including the most allegedly well-covered topics—he breaks important new ground.”—David Margolick, author and contributing editor, Vanity Fair
As this historic Presidential election looms, GalleyCat caught up with an investigative reporter to find out what stories the press missed over the course of this seemingly endless election season. His responses could float a few books for long-form journalists.
“When George H.W. Bush was at Andover, his roommate was the nephew of a man with the curious name of George de Mohrenschildt; in later years, Bush and De Mohrenschildt fraternized in Dallas. In 1962, De Mohrenschildt also befriended a troubled young man named Lee Harvey Oswald. It's just one of dozens of connections that the prodigiously industrious investigative journalist Russ Baker has drawn between President No. 41 and the assassination of President No. 35. He also connects the dots between the Bushes and Watergate, which he far-fetchedly describes not as a ham-handed act of political espionage but as a carefully orchestrated farce designed to take down President Richard Nixon. It's common knowledge that the Bushes sit at the intersection of America's business and intelligence communities, but Baker takes it further: he sees them as part of a "globally reaching, fundamentally amoral, financial-intelligence-resource apparatus that has never before been properly documented.”—Lev Grossman, Time Magazine Read full review.
“Baker is skillful at taking bits of information and placing them in contexts that make the Bush family's; and decisions look unusual and, frequently, nefarious.”—Jamie Malanowski, The Washington Post. Read full review.
“Eight years later and many of us are still wondering: How in the world did George W. Bush become president? How did Dubya, of all people, even reach a point where he could become president?
Partisan carping? Sue me. Better yet, read Russ Baker's scathing&8220;Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America ” Read full column. —By Angelica Martinez and Martin Zimmerman, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Joe's blog
- Login to post comments