-
Bush
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $23.21
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
-
-
Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
-
FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
-
-
Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
An Ordinary Man
- The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford
- By: Richard Norton Smith
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 36 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many Americans, President Gerald Ford was the genial accident of history who controversially pardoned his Watergate-tarnished predecessor, presided over the fall of Saigon, and became a punching bag on Saturday Night Live. Yet as Richard Norton Smith reveals in a book full of surprises, Ford was an underrated leader whose tough decisions and personal decency look better with the passage of time.
-
-
Must-read Polemic
- By allison h eid on 10-17-23
-
Decision Points
- By: George W. Bush
- Narrated by: George W. Bush
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor...
-
-
Loved It
- By Debra on 11-10-10
By: George W. Bush
-
His Very Best
- Jimmy Carter, a Life
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 31 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in one of the meanest counties in the Jim Crow South, Carter is the only American president who essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm in the 1920s without electricity or running water might as well have been in the nineteenth; his presidency put him at the center of major events in the twentieth; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the challenges of the 21st.
-
-
Unbiased biography of a complex president
- By P Willis on 10-08-20
By: Jonathan Alter
-
Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
-
-
Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
-
FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
-
-
Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
An Ordinary Man
- The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford
- By: Richard Norton Smith
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 36 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many Americans, President Gerald Ford was the genial accident of history who controversially pardoned his Watergate-tarnished predecessor, presided over the fall of Saigon, and became a punching bag on Saturday Night Live. Yet as Richard Norton Smith reveals in a book full of surprises, Ford was an underrated leader whose tough decisions and personal decency look better with the passage of time.
-
-
Must-read Polemic
- By allison h eid on 10-17-23
-
Decision Points
- By: George W. Bush
- Narrated by: George W. Bush
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor...
-
-
Loved It
- By Debra on 11-10-10
By: George W. Bush
-
His Very Best
- Jimmy Carter, a Life
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 31 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in one of the meanest counties in the Jim Crow South, Carter is the only American president who essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm in the 1920s without electricity or running water might as well have been in the nineteenth; his presidency put him at the center of major events in the twentieth; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the challenges of the 21st.
-
-
Unbiased biography of a complex president
- By P Willis on 10-08-20
By: Jonathan Alter
-
Richard Nixon
- The Life
- By: John A. Farrell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Nixon opens with young navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. It is a stunning overture to John A. Farrell's magisterial portrait of a man who embodied postwar American cynicism.
-
-
Well balanced and proportioned
- By Tad Davis on 06-04-17
By: John A. Farrell
-
Reagan
- The Life
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 31 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.
-
-
Very little about Reagan
- By Jack Merritt on 07-30-15
By: H. W. Brands
-
My Life (Complete)
- By: Bill Clinton
- Narrated by: Michael Beck
- Length: 50 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
President Bill Clinton's My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It shows us the progress of a remarkable American who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House - a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process that manifested itself at every stage of his life.
-
-
NOT "COMPLETE"
- By Dave on 08-24-16
By: Bill Clinton
-
The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
-
-
The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
-
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
- The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Jim Frangione
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doris Kearns Goodwin's classic life of Lyndon Johnson, who presided over the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and other defining moments in the tumultuous 1960s, is a monument in political biography. From the moment the author, then a young woman from Harvard, first encountered President Johnson at a White House dance in the spring of 1967, she became fascinated by the man - his character, his enormous energy and drive, and his manner of wielding these gifts in an endless pursuit of power.
-
-
Unfortunately simple slant.
- By Lynda Rands on 01-22-17
-
Days of Fire
- Bush and Cheney in the White House
- By: Peter Baker
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Theirs was the most captivating American political partnership since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger: a bold and untested president and his seasoned, relentless vice president. Confronted by one crisis after another, they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. In Days of Fire, Peter Baker chronicles the history of the most consequential presidency in modern times through the prism of its two most compelling characters, capturing the elusive and shifting alliance of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney as no historian has done before.
-
-
A balanced account of the W and Cheney White House
- By Scott on 11-15-13
By: Peter Baker
-
A Man of Iron
- The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland
- By: Troy Senik
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli, Troy Senik
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grover Cleveland’s political career—a dizzying journey that saw him rise from obscure lawyer to president of the United States in just three years—was marked by contradictions. A politician of uncharacteristic honesty and principle, he was nevertheless dogged by secrets from his personal life. A believer in limited government, he pushed presidential power to its limits to combat a crippling depression, suppress labor unrest, and resist the forces of American imperialism.
-
-
Worth the Wait!
- By Brian S Cunningham on 09-21-22
By: Troy Senik
-
The Jazz Age President
- Defending Warren G. Harding
- By: Ryan S. Walters
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's the butt of political jokes, frequently subjected to ridicule, and almost never absent a "Worst Presidents" list where he most often ends up at the bottom. Historians have labeled him the "Worst President Ever," "Dead Last," "Unfit," and "Incompetent," to name but a few. Many contemporaries were equally cruel. H. L. Mencken called him a "nitwit." To Alice Roosevelt Longworth, he was a "slob."
-
-
Excellent clarification
- By Scott J. Jones MD on 08-03-22
By: Ryan S. Walters
-
Kissinger
- A Biography
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 34 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to a Gallup poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world’s imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man's personality and the foreign policy he pursued.
-
-
A dissapointment
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-16-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Reagan
- An American Journey
- By: Bob Spitz
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than five years in the making, based on hundreds of interviews and access to previously unavailable documents, and infused with irresistible storytelling charm, Bob Spitz's Reagan stands fair to be the first truly post-partisan biography of our 40th president, and thus a balm for our own bitterly divided times. Absorbing and richly detailed, it is a revelatory chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagan's epic life - giving full weight to the Hollywood years, his transition to politics and successful run as California governor, and ultimately, his iconic presidency.
-
-
Pretty obvious this was written by a Democrat
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-19
By: Bob Spitz
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
An Unfinished Life
- John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Unfinished Life is the first authoritative single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing upon firsthand sources, freshly unearthed documents, and never-before-opened archives, prizewinning historian Robert Dallek reveals more than we ever knew about Jack Kennedy forever changing the way we think about his life, his presidency, and his legacy.
-
-
It’s abridged!!
- By Brad on 02-17-18
By: Robert Dallek
Publisher's summary
George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, almost single-handedly decided to invade Iraq. It was possibly the worst foreign-policy decision ever made by a president. The consequences dominated the Bush administration and still haunt us today.
In Bush, Jean Edward Smith demonstrates that it was not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice but President Bush himself who took personal control of foreign policy. Bush drew on his deep religious conviction that important foreign-policy decisions were simply a matter of good versus evil. Domestically, he overreacted to 9/11 and endangered Americans' civil liberties. Smith explains that it wasn't until the financial crisis of 2008 that Bush finally accepted expert advice, something that "the Decider", as Bush called himself, had previously been unwilling to do. As a result he authorized decisions that saved the economy from possible collapse, even though some of those decisions violated Bush's own political philosophy.
More from the same
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
-
-
Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
-
FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
-
-
Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
-
Decision Points
- By: George W. Bush
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor...
-
-
A Thematic Book
- By Roy on 11-14-10
By: George W. Bush
-
Reagan
- The Life
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 31 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.
-
-
Very little about Reagan
- By Jack Merritt on 07-30-15
By: H. W. Brands
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
Grant
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 29 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this comprehensive biography, Jean Edward Smith reconciles conflicting assessments of Grant's life, arguing that Grant is greatly underrated as a president. Following the turmoil of Andrew Johnson's administration, Grant guided the nation through the post-Civil War era, overseeing Reconstruction of the South and enforcing the freedoms of new African-American citizens. His presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories, for the same strength of character that made him successful on the battlefield also characterized his years in the White House.
-
-
Splendid Biography Inspires New Respect for Grant
- By John David on 10-07-19
-
Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
-
-
Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
-
FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
-
-
Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
-
Decision Points
- By: George W. Bush
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor...
-
-
A Thematic Book
- By Roy on 11-14-10
By: George W. Bush
-
Reagan
- The Life
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 31 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.
-
-
Very little about Reagan
- By Jack Merritt on 07-30-15
By: H. W. Brands
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
Grant
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 29 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this comprehensive biography, Jean Edward Smith reconciles conflicting assessments of Grant's life, arguing that Grant is greatly underrated as a president. Following the turmoil of Andrew Johnson's administration, Grant guided the nation through the post-Civil War era, overseeing Reconstruction of the South and enforcing the freedoms of new African-American citizens. His presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories, for the same strength of character that made him successful on the battlefield also characterized his years in the White House.
-
-
Splendid Biography Inspires New Respect for Grant
- By John David on 10-07-19
-
Richard Nixon
- The Life
- By: John A. Farrell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Nixon opens with young navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. It is a stunning overture to John A. Farrell's magisterial portrait of a man who embodied postwar American cynicism.
-
-
Well balanced and proportioned
- By Tad Davis on 06-04-17
By: John A. Farrell
-
His Very Best
- Jimmy Carter, a Life
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 31 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in one of the meanest counties in the Jim Crow South, Carter is the only American president who essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm in the 1920s without electricity or running water might as well have been in the nineteenth; his presidency put him at the center of major events in the twentieth; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the challenges of the 21st.
-
-
Unbiased biography of a complex president
- By P Willis on 10-08-20
By: Jonathan Alter
-
Woodrow Wilson
- A Biography
- By: John Milton Cooper
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Milton Cooper, Jr., is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s preeminent Woodrow Wilson biographers. This thoroughly researched profile of America’s 28th president is universally hailed for its scholarship and insight into the life and career ofone of the nation’s most polarizing leaders.
-
-
On the outside looking in
- By Doris on 09-02-13
-
Coolidge
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
- Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Calvin Coolidge, president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls, and history has remembered the decade in which he served as an extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president, showing that the mid-1920s was in fact a triumphant period that established our modern way of life: The nation electrified, Americans drove their first cars, and the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus.
-
-
Silent Cal
- By Jean on 02-19-13
By: Amity Shlaes
-
An Unfinished Life
- John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Unfinished Life is the first authoritative single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing upon firsthand sources, freshly unearthed documents, and never-before-opened archives, prizewinning historian Robert Dallek reveals more than we ever knew about Jack Kennedy forever changing the way we think about his life, his presidency, and his legacy.
-
-
It’s abridged!!
- By Brad on 02-17-18
By: Robert Dallek
-
Wilson
- By: A. Scott Berg
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 32 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hundred years after his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson still stands as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, and one of the most enigmatic. And now, after more than a decade of research and writing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg has completed Wilson - the most personal and penetrating biography ever written about the 28th President. This is not just Wilson the icon - but Wilson the man.
-
-
Well Written & Narrated But Too Much Hero Worship
- By Nostromo on 11-17-13
By: A. Scott Berg
-
A Man of Iron
- The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland
- By: Troy Senik
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli, Troy Senik
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grover Cleveland’s political career—a dizzying journey that saw him rise from obscure lawyer to president of the United States in just three years—was marked by contradictions. A politician of uncharacteristic honesty and principle, he was nevertheless dogged by secrets from his personal life. A believer in limited government, he pushed presidential power to its limits to combat a crippling depression, suppress labor unrest, and resist the forces of American imperialism.
-
-
Worth the Wait!
- By Brian S Cunningham on 09-21-22
By: Troy Senik
-
The Age of Eisenhower
- America and the World in the 1950s
- By: William I. Hitchcock
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a 2017 survey, presidential historians ranked Dwight D. Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents, behind the perennial top four: Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt. Historian William Hitchcock shows that this high ranking is justified. Eisenhower's accomplishments were enormous and loom ever larger from the vantage point of our own tumultuous times.
-
-
A Very Thorough and Balanced Biography
- By John on 05-28-18
-
Days of Fire
- Bush and Cheney in the White House
- By: Peter Baker
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Theirs was the most captivating American political partnership since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger: a bold and untested president and his seasoned, relentless vice president. Confronted by one crisis after another, they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. In Days of Fire, Peter Baker chronicles the history of the most consequential presidency in modern times through the prism of its two most compelling characters, capturing the elusive and shifting alliance of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney as no historian has done before.
-
-
A balanced account of the W and Cheney White House
- By Scott on 11-15-13
By: Peter Baker
-
John Tyler, the Accidental President
- By: Edward P. Crapol
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the 10th president, Edward P. Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief in boundless territorial expansion.
-
-
Terrible book :( Incredibly TEDIOUS.
- By Mike on 10-02-19
By: Edward P. Crapol
-
The Last Founding Father
- James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this lively and compelling biography, Harlow Giles Unger reveals the dominant political figure of a generation. A fierce fighter in four critical Revolutionary War battles and a courageous survivor of Valley Forge and a near-fatal wound at the Battle of Trenton, James Monroe (1751 - 1831) went on to become America's first full-time politician, dedicating his life to securing America's national and international durability.
-
-
Readable, but more hero worship than history
- By Elaine Martin on 12-22-10
-
The Unexpected President
- The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur
- By: Scott S. Greenberger
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite his promising start as a young man, by his early 50s Chester A. Arthur was known as the crooked crony of New York machine boss Roscoe Conkling. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and the vast majority of his fellow citizens but by his own conscience. As President James A. Garfield struggled for his life, Arthur knew better than his detractors that he failed to meet the high standard a president must uphold. And yet, from the moment President Arthur took office, he proved to be not just honest but brave.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Jean on 07-30-18
What listeners say about Bush
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rick
- 11-18-16
Delusions of Competence
If, like me, you thought of George W. Bush as an intellectual lightweight who was manipulated by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the other neoconservatives in launching a devastating war for fabricated reasons, prepare to be surprised.
He was much worse than that.
With the meticulous and persuasive “Bush,” Jean Edward Smith methodically dismantles the prevailing misconceptions of the 43rd president, who reveled in his role as Commander in Chief and wasn’t kidding when he announced, “I’m the decider.” He was. He made firm, crisp decisions, often without much thought.
Smith chronicles Bush’s early years as a back-slapping, hard-drinking son of privilege, parlaying his achievements as Texas governor and his born-again conversion into an improbable run for the presidency. Far from being duped by subordinates, he was a quiet Christian zealot who—whether supporting childhood education or laying waste to Iraq—believed without question he was doing God’s will. It was to him a Higher Authority that outranked both the Constitution and international law. Cheney and others were all too willing to follow his lead.
When intelligence didn’t demonstrate that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Bush didn’t push for more. What he pushed for was better marketing, to persuade the American public that the invasion he had already irrevocably decided upon was justified. It wasn’t faulty intelligence, it was orchestrated lies about what the intelligence really said.
It is clear that Bush was determined to vanquish Iraq long before the 9/11 attack on New York.
“Bush” is filled with detailed anecdotes (the hardcover is 832 pages long), such as his futile attempt to convince the French to join the coalition against Saddam. It’s what led Bush partisans to label the French as cowards, and to rename French fries as “freedom fries” in the Congressional cafeterias.
The French declined to join in the invasion, not for lack of courage, but because Jacques Chirac was shocked when Bush told him the war was mandated by the Book of Revelations. At that moment, Chirac knew that the failure to find WMD would never be enough to deter Bush.
Smith writes, “For Bush the coming attack [on Iraq] would mark the beginning of the final battle to rid the world of evil. He may or may not have believed it would be a cakewalk, but he was certain it was God’s will.”
That invasion was seen by most of the world as a war of US aggression. At the UN, Kofi Annan flatly called it “illegal.”
For Bush, everything was a self-righteous holy war against “the axis of evil,” the obvious implication being that he had no business serving as Commander in Chief. The smug, unconditional certainty that derived from a born-again religious conviction carried the world into war that may never end. Not to mention the great recession that followed.
Together with a massive aggregation of particulars by the author, the narration by Tom Perkins contributes much to the credibility of “Bush.” His delivery is straightforward, unemotional, and free of any implied opinion that could easily surface amid the damning details. The book is highly critical of Bush, yet far too meticulous to be dismissed as an opinionated hatchet job.
The former president has often said that history will be kind to his legacy. Smith’s conclusion that Bush “may have been the worst president in U.S. history” is not a very good start.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott
- 07-21-16
Covers the bases
A comprehensive look at the life, accomplishments, and failings of the 43rd president. Smith is no fan, considering Bush's presidency as a monumental failure though he does credit him with several successes such as his campaign to combat AIDS in Africa and his response to the 2008 financial crisis. In other words, Smith treads on no new ground here. This is worthy history but thin biography. A reader looking for insights into what made Bush tick, his younger years, or his relationships will find slim pickings here.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- oyezman
- 10-03-16
A Powerful Reminder
Most people don't like to be reminded of our errors but it is helpful to understand the many ways in which the Bush43 presidency went wrong. Smith has chronicled these 8 years and more with measured prose and does not engage in piling on when that would be the all too human instinct. Never again, folks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jb
- 07-27-16
Good but long
I am not a great fan of Bush and it was fabulous to have WHY spelled out in detail. A fascinating look into the inside details of Bush's presidency. However, I don't think it warranted 25 hours or whatever. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The reader is completely emotionless as he reads through absolutely unbelievable things, and this made it all the more enjoyable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- cavmpc
- 07-20-16
Excellent Recent History
This is as fair and balanced of a history of the George W. Bush administration as it is possible to write at this point in time. It is too favorable to Dick Cheney and perhaps Donald Rumsfeld, but this probably is due to their active cooperation with the author in his writing of the book. Very well written and the analysis is spot on. It should be mandatory reading for any politician.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. James-Long
- 05-20-17
Pronounciation of Arabic names was really grating
Good book but the pronouciation of Arabic names (especially of Maliki) was really grating. It just went on and on.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott Brinckerhoff
- 11-05-16
balanced portrait
the Bushes saw it as a hatchet job but I found it very fair
good listen, riveting mostly
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LARRY DINKIN
- 09-23-16
Enthralling, the story behind the story.
We all know the main events of Bush's presidency, now we see the story "behind the curtain". The author is well respected and gives a balanced account. I found it enthralling.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick
- 08-27-16
Critical in headline but balanced overall
The author is well accomplished with past biographies which have hugely impressed me for there ability to balance narrative and detail. The start of this biography made me doubt he was sufficiently independent to achieve this with Bush (43). However, what I have come to expect in detail and story telling returned after early chapters. It is well worth the read - though the performance of the narrator is at times comical for his wish to 'do' voice for each person.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- wingdinger
- 08-20-16
Comprehensive look at a divisive figure
Mr Smith's work deserves much praise for its clarity and entertainment value. However, as a work of history, I believe this book falls just short. Too much emphasis is put on inferring exactly the inner workings of Bush's thought process, when this information could not be known by the author.
I think it is about as good a job as possible without actually being able to interview the subject of the book, however, that doesn't excuse the presentation of opinion as fact.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful