With George W. Bush's departure from Washington, a dark chapter in American politics comes to an end. Or does it? Family of Secrets reveals that what most of us believe about the Bush dynasty is only a fragment of a larger reality. Indeed, the same forces that put Bush-Cheney into power are still very much at work, exerting a stealthy dominance over the mechanisms of democracy, regardless of who occupies the White House.
Award-winning investigative journalist Russ Baker lays out in compelling detail the untold story of how a network of financiers, oilmen, and intelligence operatives shaped the political careers of the two presidents Bush—and what the Bushes did for them in return.
At the heart of the story is a remarkable family, more complex and far more intriguing than friends or foes have imagined. Drawing on hundreds of new documentary sources and exclusive interviews, Baker unveils a portrait of the Bushes as longtime servants of an elite establishment often at odds with the public interest. Baker traces their rise from the cold war intrigues of George H. W. Bush—the relentlessly secretive "Poppy," whose genteel persona obscured a lifetime of covert intelligence activities—to the ruinous impact of the dynastic heir, a George W. Bush we also see in these pages as if for the first time.
This eye-opening inquiry offers countless revelations, never before published, that challenge the conventional accounts of crucial events. These include new insights into the assassination of John E Kennedy; startling fresh information that yields a completely new interpretation of the Watergate affair and the hidden role played in it by Poppy Bush; meticulous new reporting on W's questionable record of military service and the relentless campaign to frustrate inquiries into it; and a devastating expose of the cronyism at FEMA that led to tragedy in New Orleans. Here, too, are personal stories that have never before been uncovered—including the truth behind the religious conversion that helped turn W. into a political success.
Gripping and sobering, this narrative will change the way we understand not only the history of the past century, but also the future about to unfold.

577 pages. $30.00

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