Heartbeat
GBeorge Bush In His Own Words,
compiled by John McGrath


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book is a compilation of excerpts from key speeches and spoken materials made by Pres. George Bush Sr. both during and after his presidency. The book complements All the Best, which is a compilation of letters and written materials by Pres. George Bush Sr. This book feels a little weird because it limits itself to almost only speeches (with a few texts for context) -- and of course Bush is famously an "awkward" speaker. The book preserves all of that awkwardness. Jim McGrath, the "compiler" (he doesn't call himself the "author") provides a little bit more context for each speech excerpt, like where it was made and what it was about. It doesn't feel like you're reading a book, but it reads reasonably smoothly.

McGrath manages to get past the problems of transcribing snippets of the spoken word, but cannot get past problems of selecting which snippets to include. McGrath's goal seems to be to capture Bush's historic words in response to major world events -- that might be useful for historians in the future -- but also to capture Bush's non-historic words at meaningless events. Here's an example:

There is no additional context -- that's all there is. What is the point of that excerpt? Is it important for history to know that Bush told that particular joke at that particular venue? Does that joke reveal something about Bush's character? Did Bush even write the joke, or don't presidents use jokewriters? The book has dozens and dozens of excerpts like that -- sure, they're fun, but they leave the reader to wonder why they're reading the book. We guess that most readers intend, like us, to get some insight into President Bush -- but we cannot guess what the writer intends.

-- Jesse Gordon, OnTheIssues editor-in-chief, January 2013

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Principles & Values     Parachute jumps about making up for tragedy of WWII jump.

Click for quotations from other sources by: George Bush Sr.