cover image The Consequences to Come: American Power After Bush

The Consequences to Come: American Power After Bush

, . . New York Review, $14.95 (172pp) ISBN 978-1-59017-298-8

These 10 essays culled from the New York Review of Books appraise the legacy of the Bush presidency and offer stinging critiques of his domestic and foreign policies. Beginning with Joan Didion’s damning portrait of Vice President Dick Cheney (“the central player in the system of willed errors and reversals that is the Bush administration”), the essays cover the consequences of the war on terror, the Guantánamo Bay controversies, Iran’s growing geopolitical influence, the 2008 election and the growing fissures in the GOP. Persuasive and lavishly researched, the essays reach their climax in Arthur Schlesinger’s final published work, where he writes, “History is indeed an argument without end,” and therefore must be vigilantly consulted by those looking to move ahead—a claim that brilliantly justifies the importance of these critical essays. Although the contributors are unanimous in their opposition to the Bush administration and the occupation of Iraq, these pieces do not devolve into mere political screed; instead, they read as a history written on the heels of the present and offer a look at the political landscape of the future. (June)