The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency

by Howard Zinn

Book Overview

Here, in the magisterial yet plain-spoken style of A People's History of the United States, is historian Howard Zinn's long-awaited telling of these last six years of United States history, a time... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583227695
• ISBN13: 9781583227695
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.1" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A Needed voice

First, I have not read this yet just bought it from Kindle as I saw this after buying his People's history of the US. In the same type of books-I also bought the more conservative history as a person who fought in Iraq(or should I say Iraq fought me as was wounded twice in seven weeks and now a disabled vet because of this). I can only put it in these terms as I am a very conservative minded person. When we all gathered in our CP in Mosul, turned the lights out and popped Moore's documentary about the war, when a an officer(Lt) came in and saw what was on turned on the light and started badgering us for watching this flick-my hero and platoon Sgt told him if he did not agree then shut the bleep up-what are we doing here if we do not have the fredom to consider ideas from a different perspective. With this, I am not saying agree with every leftist ideal coming down the pike, but at least read, learn, and consider as we should never be scared to question our own beliefs and motivations in reading those against our own opinion. Freedom is not really freedom when we fear what people think for considering an ideal as it is our God given right to think and then consider opposing opinions. The fearful are truely the ones enslaved by an ideology when not able to consider those we oppose in our beliefs.

Excellent update on the USA since 2001

The most recent edition of American historian Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States ended with Bush's declaration of a `war on terror'. This brief volume brings the story up to date. Zinn explains how Bush misled people into the wars. "It was part of a historic pattern in U.S. foreign policy to tell the American people that war was necessary to defend the United States against a threat, or to bring liberty and democracy to other countries, while the real motives for war - the profits of corporations, the control of vital raw materials, the expansion of the U.S. empire - were concealed." He sums up that Bush's two wars have not brought democracy, freedom or security to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan and have not weakened terrorism. Far from bringing democracy abroad, the wars were violating democracy in the USA. The PATRIOT Act extended the state's power to intercept communications and gave it the power to search people's homes without their knowledge. Zinn particularly condemns the US state's authorisation of torture. He notes that when the US Senate was considering a bill to ban torture, Vice President Cheney visited senators to argue against the bill. Late in 2006, Congress passed, and President Bush signed, a bill allowing the CIA to continue harsh interrogation - torture - of suspected terrorists in secret CIA prisons abroad. This bill also ended the right of habeas corpus for anyone, including US citizens, whom the President or the secretary of defense designated as an `unlawful enemy combatant'. In 2006 Congress passed a military budget of $500 billion and arms and oil firms got huge profits, while education and medical care were cut. Chief Executive Officers got 400 times the wage of the average worker, while the minimum wage stayed where it was ten years ago, at $5.15 an hour. Most Americans now oppose the war and want to withdraw the troops, and President Bush has the lowest ratings of any president in history.

The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency

Well thought out and balanced regarding how inapropriatley Bush and his administration is marshalling the unique resources of the US and not in the best interests of the world. Among the most precious of these resources is the Values it stands for and the Goodwill it had earned over centuries. The message is not an argument but a reasoned voice for what is just. A short book yet not a "quick" read and well worth the time.