41: A Portrait of My Father

by George W. Bush

Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has authored a personal biography of his father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st President.
 
Forty-three men have served as President of the United States. Countless books have been written about them. But never before has a President told the story of his father, another President, through his own eyes and in his own words. A unique and intimate biography, the book covers the entire scope of the elder President Bush’s life and career, including his service in the Pacific during World War II, his pioneering work in the Texas oil business, and his political rise as a Congressman, U.S. Representative to China and the United Nations, CIA Director, Vice President, and President.  The book shines new light on both the accomplished statesman and the warm, decent man known best by his family. In addition, George W. Bush discusses his father’s influence on him throughout his own life, from his childhood in West Texas to his early campaign trips with his father, and from his decision to go into politics to his own two-term Presidency.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553447781
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/11/2014
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	139,539
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States, serving from 2001 to 2009. He previously served as Governor of Texas. He and his wife, Laura, now live in Dallas, where they founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University. President Bush is also the author of three #1 bestsellers: Decision Points, his presidential memoir; 41, a biography of his father, President George H. W. Bush; and Portraits of Courage, a collection of oil paintings and stories honoring the sacrifice and courage of America’s military veterans.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Beginnings 1

War 19

Heading West 34

Hat in the Ring 59

Man of the House 81

Diplomacy 93

Runner-Up 121

Within a Heartbeat 139

The Road to the White House 157

Number 41 185

The Hardest Year 216

The Afterlife 249

Acknowledgments 277

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

Bush's conversational storytelling makes for engaging reading…Beyond his father's well-known résumé, the book offers a sense of the toll a public life takes on a family, even one as accustomed to the spotlight as the Bushes…For a deeper look into this fascinating relationship, we will probably have to wait for presidential historians…For now, we have a son's loving testimonial…

The New York Times Book Review - Peter Baker

At its best, the book has the qualities of the younger Mr. Bush's recent and much-talked-about paintings: It's folksy, sharply observed and surprisingly affecting…The most persuasive sections of this book deal not with the political, but with the personal. Mr. Bush's writing doesn't have the earnest charm of his father's letters…or the literary gifts displayed by his wife, Laura, in her memoir…But…this volume comes close to capturing Mr. Bush's distinctive voice—by turns jokey and sentimental, irreverent and sincere.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani