Dead Certain
The Presidency of George W. Bush
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Simon & Schuster
Published:16th Jun '08
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Dead Certain is a story told in six sections. Beginning with an immersion into Bush the nascent politician (entitled "Baptism"), we see in "Through Our Tears" a mandate-less new President evincing both collegiality and defensiveness as he pursues his conservative agenda. "Dark City On A Hill" describes the contentiousness that attends the roll-up to Iraq and the queasy slide from Mission Accomplished to the occupation of a broken nation.The final section, "A Laying On Of Hands," finds a once-swaggering presidency desperately moving from one gambit to another in an effort to right its sagging agenda, culminating in the 2006 midterm elections that decide the fate of a hobbled administration.
Far from being a retelling of well-known events, Dead Certain plumbs both the natural drama and the behind-the-scenes granularity of George W. Bush's episodic presidency. It will be regarded as a classic, inside account of this troubled presidency.
"A fascinating...book. What Dead Certain does very nimbly is give the reader an intimate sense of the president's personality and how it informs his decision making." - The New York Times
"What Draper does with great skill in Dead Certain is debunk caricatures of George Bush, both positive and negative. In place of the dim-witted bogeyman of the left and the resolute hero of the right, Draper introduces a three-dimensional man full of contradictions." -- Salon.com
"A fascinating look at both [the Bush] presidency and his personality." -- Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News
"Draper is no apologist for the administration, and for Bush-bashers there are plenty of nuggets.... But the overall portrait sheds a humanizing light on a much-vilified president." -- Los Angeles Times
"An intimate portrait of a White House racked by more infighting than is commonly portrayed." -- The Washington Post
"Amazing...stunning." -- New York Post
"Washington's hottest dinner-party book this autumn." -- The Observer (UK)
ISBN: 9780743277297
Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 30mm
Weight: 501g
480 pages