Research Catalog

Title

Days of fire : Bush and Cheney in the White House / Peter Baker.

Author

Baker, Peter, 1967-

Publication

• New York : Doubleday, [2013]
• ©2013

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 800 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits; 25 cm

Summary

• A senior White House correspondent presents a history of the Bush and Cheney White House years that shares anecdotes by more than two hundred insiders to explore the inner conflicts that shaped the handling of significant events.
• "From the senior White House correspondent for The New York Times comes the definitive history of the Bush and Cheney White House--a tour de force narrative of those dramatic and controversial eight years. Taking readers into the offices of the West Wing and the cabins of Air Force One, Peter Baker tells the gripping inside story of the Bush and Cheney era. Theirs was the most fascinating American partnership since Nixon and Kissinger, an untested president and his seasoned vice president confronted by one crisis after another as they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. Packed with revealing anecdotes and told with in-the-room immediacy, Days of Fire narrates two profoundly significant and conflicted terms marked by 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, jihad, nuclear proliferation, genocide, and economic collapse. George W. Bush was one of the most polarizing presidents of our time, jettisoning decades of foreign policy pragmatism to redefine America's mission as a crusade to bring freedom to the world. Yet his early dream of transforming Republicans into the party of "compassionate conservatism" and building an "ownership society" were dashed by two consuming wars and a devastating financial crash. At his side was Dick Cheney, the trusted adviser who became the most influential vice president in history only to watch as Bush drifted away, leaving the two at odds over a wide array of fundamental issues. Baker's interviews with more than two hundred players--White House aides, cabinet secretaries, generals, senators and congressmen, relatives and friends of both men--help reveal the truth of their complicated and shifting relationship. Days of Fire is the first book to capture in a truly defining way all eight years of the most consequential presidency in a generation. It is an essential history and thrilling reading"--
• "From the senior White House correspondent for The New York Times comes the definitive history of the Bush and Cheney White House. Taking readers into the offices of the West Wing and the cabins of Air Force One, Peter Baker tells the gripping inside story of the Bush and Cheney era. Theirs was the most fascinating American partnership since Nixon and Kissinger, an untested president and his seasoned vice president confronted by one crisis after another as they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. Packed with revealing anecdotes and told with in-the-room immediacy, Days of Fire narrates two profoundly significant and conflicted terms marked by 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, jihad, nuclear proliferation, genocide, and economic collapse. George W. Bush was one of the most polarizing presidents of our time, jettisoning decades of foreign policy pragmatism to redefine America's mission as a crusade to bring freedom to the world. Yet his early dream of transforming Republicans into the party of "compassionate conservatism" and building an "ownership society" were dashed by two consuming wars and a devastating financial crash. At his side was Dick Cheney, the trusted adviser who became the most influential vice president in history only to watch as Bush drifted away, leaving the two at odds over a wide array of fundamental issues. Baker's interviews with more than two hundred players--White House aides, cabinet secretaries, generals, senators and congressmen, relatives and friends of both men--help reveal the truth of their complicated and shifting relationship. Days of Fire is the first book to capture in a truly defining way all eight years of the most consequential presidency in a generation"--

Subjects

• Bush, George W (George Walker), 1946-
• United States > Politics and government > 2001-2009
• Cheney, Richard B

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [765]-774) and index.

Contents

Prologue : "Breaking china" -- "One of you could be president" -- "to be where the action is" -- "The fire horse and the bell" -- "We wrapped Clinton around his neck" -- "I'm going to call Dick" -- "Iron filings moving across a tabletop" -- "Somebody's going to pay" -- "Whatever it takes" -- "The first battle of the war" -- "We're going to lose our prey" -- "Afghanistan was too easy" -- "A brutal, ugly, repugnant man" -- "You could hear the hinge of history turn" -- "Maybe we'll get lucky" -- "Mr. President, I think we've got a problem" -- "Welcome to free Iraq" -- "We were almost all wrong" -- "When are we going to fire somebody?" -- "The election that will never end" -- "Not a speech Dick Cheney would give" -- "Who do they think they are? I was reelected too" -- "Whacked upside the head" -- "You could have heard a pin drop" -- "Please do not let anything happen today" -- "I'm not sure how to take good news anymore" -- "Make damn sure we do not fail" -- "Don't let this be your legacy" -- "The elephants finally threw up on the table" -- "Everybody knew this was the last bullet in the chamber" -- "I'm going to fire all your asses" -- "Revolt of the radical pragmatists" -- "Don't screw with the president of the United States -- "What is this, a cruel hoax?" -- "Our people are going to hate us for this" -- "I didn't want to be president during a depression" -- "Such a sense of betrayal" -- Epilogue : "There is no middle ground."

Call Number

JFE 14-237

ISBN

• 9780385525183 (hbk.)
• 0385525184 (hbk.)

LCCN

2013018745

OCLC

846912059

Author

Baker, Peter, 1967- author.

Title

Days of fire : Bush and Cheney in the White House / Peter Baker.

Publisher

New York : Doubleday, [2013]

Copyright Date

©2013

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [765]-774) and index.

Connect to:

Cover image

Research Call Number

JFE 14-237