A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House (Paperback)

by George W. Bush (Author), Mickey Herskowitz (Author) "I am going to give each of you a huge sum, $86,400" the minister told the several hundred people gathered in the down Austin church..." (more)
Key Phrases: school property taxes, reading initiative, orange socks, Henry Lee Lucas, Karla Faye Tucker, Governor of Texas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The political biography, complete with life-altering turning points and a political philosophy for leading the United States into greatness, has become obligatory for those running for president--just one more thing to check off the "to do" list on the way to the Oval Office. A Charge to Keep is George W. Bush's offering: a light and breezy book mixing personal and political remembrances that proves heavy on chatty anecdotes and light on policy prescriptions. If you read the last chapter you'll sort of learn where George W. stands on most things, but still not really discern how he would actually run the country. There are no revelations, either personal or political: Bush's wild side and youthful indiscretions, like stealing a Christmas wreath from a New Haven hotel for his Yale fraternity, are touched on lightly when he discusses them at all. A Charge to Keep is so upbeat and positive, in describing the Houston woman to whom he was engaged in college and from whom he "gradually drifted apart," Bush says simply: "I still think the world of her, and our parting was friendly. We were very young, we lived in different places, and we gradually developed different lives."

George W. has been labeled a lightweight by some; A Charge to Keep will do nothing to dispel that notion. It features lots of Bush family memories and numerous mentions of George W.'s famous parents, including letters from his president father. George W. has followed closely in his father's footsteps, attending the same prep school and college. He even belonged to the same secret society at Yale, Skull and Bones. From college it was on to flight school and the Texas Air National Guard, Harvard Business School, and then (again, like his father) the Texas oil business and politics. George W. seems mostly in sync with his father on policy issues as well. "A thousand points of light" is transformed slightly to become "compassionate conservative," which pops up in the final chapter more than 10 times. Readers will come away knowing many of the experiences and events that have helped shaped George W., but his future is still an open book. --Linda Killian --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
Despite the subtitle, this book, first published in 1999, does not include any report of the President's 2000 campaign nor the postelection drama of the Florida vote count. Typical of the books that presidential candidates write to introduce themselves to the American public and promote their campaigns, the narrative gives insight into the experiences that shaped Bush's life and his decision to run for president. Co-written with his communications director, Karen Hughes, the book stresses his educational reform successes as governor of Texas and describes faith-based programs supported by the state's agencies as examples of "compassionate conservatism." Bush also offers background and explanations for his decisions on several controversial issues, such as the death penalty and health-care reform. The overall tone of the book projects the "uniter not divider" image. Recommended for public libraries that do not own the 1999 edition. Jill Ortner, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Later Printing edition (January 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060957921
• ISBN-13: 978-0060957926
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars They didn't have a zero star rating., December 20, 2005

By	!Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I completely recommend this book if you like being underwhelmed, or if you want to be whipped into a catatonic stupor. If you must read it, get it from the library so you won't feel like you did when you bought the Ding King from the TV commercial. (As for the writing style, I'm not sure our president can push a subject against a predicate, at gunpoint.) If this was written by a ghostwriter, he or she should be taken out and shot.

As for the veracity of the text, don't believe it. Karen Hughes, the probable ghostwriter, called up Bush's former national guard base after he became governor, or the national guard's commander-in-chief. She told the commander she wanted to be able to check his records. Translation: I'm going to purge anything bad about him before I write his book.

George's words ring as hollow as his vaunted national guard record and his smirking air of superiority. This book says that he continued to fly for a number of years, which was patently false. After his two million dollars worth of training, he tried to get a slot in the Air Force post office of another base in Alabama. He was turned down. Then, he refused to take his flight physical. Flight physicals are orders, not requests. Years later, Karen Hughes would tell a kowed press that Bush didn't take the physical because his personal physician was in Houston. No one questioned that these exams are given by Air Force flight surgeons, period.

This book was not only inaccurate, but dull and too self-serving. I recommend it only as a Christmas gift for a person you only pretend to like. (Don't forget to add drums and trumpets for his or her children too.) The collapse should be total.

By page 5 this book was by my bedside as a cure for insomnia. (A Charge to Sleep.) If you have a choice of painting on New Year's Eve and watching it dry, or reading this, go with the paint.

If someone gives this to you, change your home phone number. It can only mean he or she really doesn't like you.

Look for this book in a clearance bin near you.

45 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Autobiography I've Read!, February 8, 2002

By	"republicanrealist" (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Charge to Keep (Hardcover)

This is the best autobiography from George Bush I've ever read. It clearly shows Bush's side of his struggles with Alchoholism, Cocaine abuse and Business failure. His surprisingly fresh sense of humor neatly balances his harrowing accounts of the action and bloodshed in Vietnam that he witnessed on T.V. while safe at home in the National Gaurd where he trained to fly out-moded jets. George is a hero for our age. Who better to represent our country in it's declinig years than an illegitimate "president" with a third-graders grasp of our world. God DOES have a sense of humor.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars At this Time, September 19, 2001

By	William Thomas Hill "wthp" (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Charge to Keep (Hardcover)

Let us hope and pray before God almighty at this time when we need a strong and intelligent leader that this is simply the poorly written work of Karen Hughes. This book makes Bush come off as shallow, an air-head, and as little more than a cheerleader. This is embarrassing! ...utterly filled with childish prattle that leads the reader to feel that he or she is being read down to. As a well-read reader of the Bush family and W's life I found this book insulting. The following example will suffice:

One night, Laura and I were out of town camping, and Barbara and Jenna spent the night at the vice presidential mansion. Dad had spent the day preparing for a debate with Michael Dukakis. Unfortunately, Barbara lost her sleeping companion, Spikey, her favorite stuffed dog. She complained loudly that she could not sleep without Spikey, so "Gampy," better known as Vice President Bush, spent much of the night before his debate searching the house and grounds of the vice presidential residence, flashlight in hand, on a mission to find Spikey. Finally, he did, and Barbara slept soundly. I don't know if dad ever went to sleep that night. (179)

Oh! Jeeminy wilikers! And it's that way through two hundred forty three pages!

Does anyone really believe that Barbara Bush is so self-absorbed that she would be more concerned about her stuffed dog than about the fact that her husband has a major presidential debate coming up? It's enough to make anyone with more than a third grade education vomit!