What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles [Paperback]

Eliot Weinberger (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: September 29, 2005

Essayist Eliot Weinberger sets his sights on the Bush team with brilliant, thought-provoking, funny consequences.

Written for publication in magazines abroad, translated into sixteen languages, and collected here for the first time, Eliot Weinberger's chronicles of the Bush era range from first-person journalism to political analysis to a kind of documentary prose poetry. The book begins with the inauguration of George W. Bush in January 200l—and an eerie prediction of the invasion of Iraq—and picks up on September 12, with an account of downtown Manhattan, where Weinberger lives, on the "day after." With wit and anger, and sometimes startling prescience, What Happened Here takes us through the first term of the "Bush junta": the deep history of the neoconservative "sleeper cell," the invention of the War on Terror, the real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the often bizarre behavior of the Republican Party. For twenty-five years, Eliot Weinberger has been taking the essay form into unexplored territory. In What Happened Here, truth proves stranger than poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

American readers admire Weinberger (Words on Paper; Karmic Traces) as a literary essayist and for his indefatigable, influential translations from Spanish and Chinese. Many Europeans and Mexicans know him as a political writer, explaining U.S. events from a clear (and clearly appalled) left-wing perspective. Inspiring in its integrity, but grim in some of its conclusions, this brief volume collects 12 essays, a speech and an interview offered to overseas audiences between December 2000 and January 2005. (A preface dates from the first Gulf War.) Weinberger compiles a hymnal-sized chrestomathy of outrages, an elegantly acrid summary of all that he believes has gone badly wrong in the past five years, including "the first coup d'état in American history" (the Supreme Court's 2000 presidential decision) and the awful lessons of 9/11 (he lives in lower Manhattan). He argues that the Bush administration, rather than learning those lessons, has used them as excuses for large-scale carnage in Iraq. Weinberger has nothing like the American name recognition of thinkers whose critiques he echoes—he does, however, have a superb prose style: both far-left skeptics and worried moderates might appreciate his work once they find it, and New Directions' unusual pocket-sized format may help the collection get into those readers' hands. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

With the perspective of a writer who writes for foreign publications, Weinberger offers a view of the Bush presidency from a slight remove. This collection of essays and articles that have been translated into 16 languages begins with the inauguration of George W. Bush and the actions and policies that presaged an invasion of Iraq even before the terrorist attack of 9/11. Weinberger includes an account of downtown Manhattan, where he lives, on the day after the attack, and the feeling of lost innocence in a nation that, since the Reagan presidency, had come to be referred to as the Republic of Entertainment. In the aftermath of 9/11, Weinberger excoriates the Bush administration for its panic peddling and massive and secret arrests of "suspects," as well as the contrived "intelligence" that led to the war on Iraq. He ponders what geopolitics would look like if Europe stopped playing the "American game." Weinberger offers fresh perspectives in a thought-provoking and witty style. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (September 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811216381
• ISBN-13: 978-0811216388
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,546,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and Gut Wrenching, August 30, 2008

By 

Michael G. DeFilippo (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (Paperback)

As the publisher of The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family's Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation, I was absolutely amazed at the accuracy of Mr. Weinberger's perceptions of the Bush administration, it's cabal of evildoers, and the true conditions surrounding the war in Iraq. I am currently working on a book on the Bush administration and in the past three years, I have read nearly 200 books, and countless magazine articles and stories, and I must say, with all due apologies to other authors, that What Happened Here is the best book I have read in this genre. The simplicity and emotion with which Mr. Weinberger has detailed his observations are what make this book what it is: a great piece of literature that must be read by everyone, everywhere.

3.0 out of 5 stars history in the making, September 30, 2011

By 

john C - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (Paperback)

This book reminds me of the scams involved particularly in US politics.
We all now live under the threat of misled religious fanatics deciding that killing others will convert the rest of us to their cause.
How dopey.
The book is poorly produced and over priced by the time postage is added

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good on iraq bad on sontag, October 20, 2007

By 

rema hammami - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (Paperback)

I read Weinbeger on Sontag and found his review of her work -- irritating and actually quite bitchy. I'm not some great fan of hers -- but just found his NYR overview of her oeuvre a most appalling example of self referential bitchiness masking as brilliant insider insight. I googled him and found out that -- surprise -- he wrote that very elegant essay against the US invasion of Iraq. So I ponder how to square the two Elitots....