Peter Baker’s new book Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House” necessarily discusses the events of the Bush presidency, and gives a behind the scenes context for the decisions that shaped the first decade of the 21st century.
The Washington Post’s review of the book is positive:
Peter Baker’s impressive new book, “Days of Fire,” one of the first efforts to set out the history of the Bush administration, is a distinguished work, notable for its scope and ambition, that should become a standard reference for historians.
And in discussing the subject matter of the book, the paper initially suggests any take on the merits and impact of the Bush presidency to be premature:
The historical judgments of the Bush administration are only beginning to take shape. It has taken several years for the key actors to write their memoirs and for the president’s friends and subordinates to offer stories they wouldn’t volunteer at the time the Bush team was in the White House.
But at the end of the review, it becomes clear that what history is waiting on is not to evaluate the presidency’s overall worth, just the severity of its failures:
It will take years, perhaps decades, to judge what Bush’s tax cuts did to America’s economic and social structure. Over time, we will be able to see just how badly the war in Iraq eroded American power and damaged its international standing.
