American dynasty : aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the house of Bush / Kevin Phillips.

Family, Dynasty, and restoration -- The not-quite-royal family -- The dynastization of America -- The first American restoration -- Crony capitalism, covert operations, and compassionate conservatism -- Texanomics and compassionate conservatism -- The Enron-Halliburton administration -- Armaments and men : the Bush dynasty and the national security state -- Religion, oil, armaments, and war -- The American presidency and the rise of the Religious Right -- Indiana Bush and the axis of evil -- The wars of the Texas succession -- Afterword : Machiavelli and the American dynastic moment -- appendix A. Armaments and the Walker-Bush Family, 1914-40 -- appendix B. Deception, dissimulation, and disinformation.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A critical portrait of the Bush political dynasty describes their rise to power over the course of four generations, arguing that the Bush family has used its financial and social empire to gain the White House.

The Bushes are the family nobody really knows, says Kevin Phillips. This popular lack of acquaintance--nurtured by gauzy imagery of Maine summer cottages, gray-haired national grandmothers, July Fourth sparklers, and cowboy boots--has let national politics create a dynasticized presidency that would have horrified America's founding fathers. They, after all, had led a revolution against a succession of royal Georges. In this devastating book, onetime Republican strategist Phillips reveals how four generations of Bushes have ascended the ladder of national power since World War One, becoming entrenched within the American establishment--Yale, Wall Street, the Senate, the CIA, the vice presidency, and the presidency--through a recurrent flair for old-boy networking, national security involvement, and political deception. By uncovering relationships and connecting facts with new clarity, Phillips comes to a stunning conclusion: The Bush family has systematically used its financial and social empire--its "aristocracy"--to gain the White House, thereby subverting the very core of American democracy. In their ambition, the Bushes ultimately reinvented themselves with brilliant timing, twisting and turning from silver spoon Yankees to born-again evangelical Texans. As America--and the world--holds its breath for the 2004 presidential election, American Dynasty explains how it happened and what it all means.--Publisher description.