Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Mark Crispin Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2004

READ A NEWSPAPER or catch the news on television, and you might get the impression that America's current leadership is "mainstream": perhaps a bit more conservative and in its foreign policy more belligerent than its predecessors, but still a federal authority that functions within America's political traditions. But as Mark Crispin Miller argues here with great clarity and effect, we are in fact living in a state that would appall the Founding Fathers: a state that is neither democratic nor republican, and no more "conservative" than it is liberal. He exposes the Bush Republicans' contempt for democratic practice, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet, and--above all--their emotional dependence on sheer hatefulness. Abraham Lincoln once observed that, if the United States should ever be subverted, "it will be conquered from within." And that is exactly what has happened.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While numerous books have been written criticizing the policies and practices of the George W. Bush administration, few have been as foreboding about the meaning of those policies and practices as Mark Crispin Miller's Cruel and Unusual. In Bush and company, Miller sees a regime comparable to the most ruthless authoritarian dictatorships of the modern era and warns that Americans, skillfully duped by a corrupt government and a complicit mass media, are blithely accepting the curtailing of their liberties and the eradication of their democracy. The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the tremendous fear and insecurity they generated among the American people provided, in Miller's estimation, ample opportunity for Bush and company to move the country to a place where dissent is crushed by force, wars are started on lies, and democratic elections will soon be a thing of the past. Cruel and Unusual makes a compelling case by providing massive amounts of evidence, some concrete and some speculative, although at times the sprawling range of his subject matter harms Miller's attempts to form a cohesive argument. And for someone writing a book about George W. Bush, Miller is awfully preoccupied with the treatment President Bill Clinton received from the press and right-wing activists. Particularly strong, however, are passages related to the build-up to war in Iraq and the discrediting of weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who insisted that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Miller provides transcripts from cable news talk shows where administration spokesman attack Ritter with the apparent assistance of like-minded hosts while Ritter himself doggedly defends himself and persistently rejects the main reason given for war. Cruel and Unusual is one of the most energetic and dire criticisms of the Bush administration but its urgency is matched by the crimes it sees being committed. --John Moe --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In delivering this blunt jeremiad—Bush is "fascistic," "theocratic," a "crook," etc.—Miller (The Bush Dyslexicon) argues that the Bush-era press isn't simply biased, it has been lulled into an Orwellian false consciousness. One of the major examples Miller, a professor of media studies at NYU, offers is the case of Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector who insisted before the war that Iraq probably had no unconventional weapons and was treated by TV interviewers like Paula Zahn as a near-stooge for Saddam. For Miller, further elements of the current order include electronic voting machines that he says were used to tilt the 2002 congressional elections and a cabal of Christian Reconstructionists that wants to impose theocracy on America. Miller, sometimes overheatedly, links the "extremist propaganda" of the Christian right to Bush assertions and policies, traces it to groups like the highly secretive Council for National Policy, and presents what he sees as a final agenda: "To such apocalyptic types, the prospect of a ruined earth is no big deal, as long as God can be alleged to go for it." While such arguments are familiar, as is the indignant tone, Miller's thoroughness and clarity in tracking down the sources of the policies he decries, and the ways in which they are disseminated, set the book apart.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• ISBN-10: 0393059170
• ASIN: B000H305SC
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,828,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Crispin Miller is Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is the author of several books, including 'Boxed In: The Culture of TV;' 'The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder;' 'Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order' and 'Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform.' He is also the editor of 'Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008.' His essays and articles have appeared in many journals, magazines and newspapers throughout the nation and the world, and he has given countless interviews worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting twist on the battle of "hate" vs. "dissent", September 17, 2004

By 

Mike Hill "Mike" (Tuscaloosa, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Hardcover)

First of all, let me lay my cards on the table. I am a social liberal and a registered democrat, thus any conservative heart to heart on this book is lost in my analysis. Although, I did, amazingly, embark upon this book with an, how do I say, open mind to George W. Bush's leadership. To the meat of the review; I found Professor Miller's book on Bush/Cheney's New World Order fascinating and enlightening. I particulary enjoyed the comparison of President Clinton with current President Bush. The outlash against President Clinton, according to Miller, was a bit excess in comparison to the virtual silence of the press concerning G.W.'s unstatesmanlike antics. If Professor Miller is correct in his observations and factual analysis, then I fear for the direction of our great country. I only hope his use of this book is to offer a stump speech to his coalition of liberal backers, more so than it is an accurate account of our time at hand. Unfortunately, I would have to go with the latter. To offer dissent is patriotic; which, according to Professor Miller, G.W. does not tolerate well. Seemingly, Professor Miller is highly accurate in his studies and highly correct in his regurgitations of prominent news articles, albeit the small amount of press that G.W. has generated in his 4 years in office. I would recommend this book to anyone concerned about the direction of our great democracy and the future under George W. Bush or to anyone who would enjoy an excellent structured political argument against Mr. Bush.

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now more than ever..., November 28, 2004

By 

David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Hardcover)

So, do you really need another anti-Bush book in your collection? Even if Kerry had won the election, the answer would be yes. Miller's bleak thesis reaches well beyond George And Dick's Excellent Adventure, into a future of across the board right-wing dominance that we can expect to continue until progressives begin fighting back effectively. The first step is to appreciate just how one-sided the debate is in America today, and although Miller's book can be downright infurating in that respect, it gets the job done.

Miller does a great job of illustrating the distinction between Republican rhetoric about honor, decency and "values" and the reality of 30 years of win-at-all-costs politicking, rife with character assassinations and demagoguery. He also makes a more than convincing case that the media, with its increasingly clear conservative bias, has been complicit in allowing their hypocrisy to succeed for so long. In the most unique part of Miller's assessment, he drives it all home with an analysis of Bill Clinton's record in office and that of his right-wing detractors.

He argues along the way that the right's vilification of Clinton amounted to their projection of their own dark sides onto a politically expedient target. Appropriately, Miller refers to Clinton, the mushy-middle president of reality, and "Clinton," the viciously unethical left-wing radical so often depicted in the media, as two all but completely different entities. Indeed, it is remarkable how many of the false accusations against Clinton have proven to be true of Bush, with no apparent political fallout resulting for the latter; Miller's list is probably incomplete, but it more than makes his point. Conservatives could (and surely will) accuse Miller of cherrypicking and argue that "both sides do it." But he also makes the point that legitimate examples of liberals being as vicious and untruthful against conservatives as we see every day in reverse are genuinely rare; and he provides several examples of arguments made to that effect and why they're wrong.

The one serious flaw I can find in the book is Miller's obvious rage. I dislike Bush and what he's doing to America just as much as Miller does, and yes, we should be angry about it all. But there is a limit to how angry one can sound and still be able to present a coherent argument, and Miller crosses that line on occasion. Also, I'm not convinced that he is truly qualified to make some of the more technical psychological arguments he does regarding right-wingers' rage at differences of opinion or their "projections" onto Clinton.

Still, for those of us who thirst for a more elaborate explanation for the motivations of the right than "because they're mean," Miller does make a strong case. He also provides dozens of examples of that meanness, some of which will probably be new to you no matter how many other anti-Bush books you've read. When battling 30+ years of experience in gutter-politics, you can never have too much evidence on your side!

Read it, be angry, and do something about it.

52 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The whole picture, September 9, 2004

By 

Nspector (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Hardcover)

I like the way Mark Crispin Miller writes. I couldn't
put down "The Bush Dyslexicon" after I bought it, and
"Cruel and Unusual" is even better. We have been
inundated, for many good reasons, with anti-Bush books
in the last few years, but a few of them, however
well-intentioned and well-researched, are simply too
maddening to read. I bought "The Best Democracy Money
Can Buy" by Greg Palast and even though he is a great
reporter whose work anyone interested in marginalized
news stories should read, his journalistic style and
the litany of past crimes he details made me feel
helpless and angry and made the book difficult to read
in its entirety. "Cruel and Unusual," however
terrifying its conclusions, is, on the other hand,
empowering. As I read it I felt like I was coming
across my own thoughts and feelings articulated more
powerfully than I might have done. I recommend it to
anyone on the left looking for a book about the whole
picture - civil rights issues, the Iraq war,
terrorism, religion, Bush's personality, as well as
the origins and workings of the mechanisms that
undergird the current administration.

All political books preach to the choir, but only a
few move the choir to sing in such a way that draws
others to the song. This is such a book. Don't try to
get your conservative Republican brother-in-law to
read it. Just buy it yourself, read it, and tell your
conservative Republican brother-in-law the things that
the Bush administration is doing to his country while
betraying his trust.