". . . The George W. Bush Legacy is important, foundational reading for scholars who seek to understand how Bush will be understood in coming years and the lasting effects of his presidency on the office of the president."

--Excerpt from a review in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Volume 38, Issue 3, Pages 551-553, written by Caroline Heldman, Occidental College

The George W. Bush Legacy assesses the current president’s political strategy as well as his administration’s policies. With his two terms marked by global tension and intense partisanship, chapter authors look at the Bush administration’s efforts to influence the direction of the judiciary, expand executive power, institutionalize the 2001 tax cuts, deliver policies and appointments for favored “base” constituencies, and increase the size and reach of the national security state. Contributors also offer perspectives on the responses to the events of September 11, 2001—including the fateful decision to go to war in Iraq that has perhaps become the defining action of this presidency.

Making the volume easy to use throughout a presidency course, each chapter focuses on one aspect of the Bush administration, ranging from the president’s leadership style and the influence of interest groups, to the effects of public opinion and the role of the courts. This authoritative book provides measured and nuanced appraisals of the short- and long-term impact of Bush’s accomplishments and failures at a particularly pivotal time in American history.

1. Introduction: Legacies and Leadership in Context
Colin Campbell, Bert A. Rockman, Andrew Rudalevige

2. Presidential Politics in a Polarized Nation: The Re-election of George W. Bush
James E. Campbell

3. Bush’s Democratic Ambivalence: Responsiveness and Policy Promotion in Republican Government
Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Shapiro

4. George W. Bush, Polarization, and the War in Iraq
Gary C. Jacobson

5. A Divider, Not a Uniter--Did it Have to Be?
Morris P. Fiorina

6. Supplying the Defect of Better Motives? The Bush II Administration and the Constitutional System
Joel D. Aberbach

7. “The Decider”: Issue Management and the Bush White House
Andrew Rudalevige

8. Living (and Dying?) by the Sword: George W. Bush as Legislative Leader
Barbara Sinclair

9. In Search of a Means to an End: George W. Bush and the Federal Judiciary
David A. Yalof

10. Grand Strategy as National Security Policy: Politics, Rhetoric, and the Bush Legacy
Raymond Tanter and Stephen Kersting

11. Ideology Meets Reality: Managing Regime Change in Iraq and the Transformation of the Military
Colin Campbell

12. The Braking of the President: Shifting Context and the Bush Domestic Agenda
Christopher H. Foreman Jr

13. Still a Government of Chums: Bush, Business, and Organized Interests
Mark A. Peterson

14. The Legacy of the George W. Bush Presidency--A Revolutionary Presidency?
Bert A. Rockman

"This early assessment of the George W. Bush presidency by leading American politics experts sets a high standard for future work on the subject. Summing up without dumbing down, the volume is nuanced and nonpartisan, scholarly but accessible. Agree or not with its main themes and theses, it will inform and challenge both supporters and critics of the Bush 43 White House."

"The George W. Bush Legacy is edited and written by the top presidential and congressional scholars in political science. It sets the 'gold standard' for an assessment of George W. Bush. All of the major perspectives about the way President Bush was re-elected and the way he led during an unpopular war and divided party government are presented in this one volume. It blends theory and empirical observation in a way that makes this book perfect for university students, the general public, and even President George W. Bush. Yes, President Bush should read it. He will learn a great deal about his leadership and legacy and so will the general reader."

"This volume does far more than recount the details of the presidency of George W. Bush. Essays by prominent scholars also offer thoughtful, systematic, and provocative analyses of the administration’s driving values and key initiatives and of the challenges and constraints it confronted. They highlight as well the problems and possibilities that Bush 43 will bequeath to his successors. Telling historical comparisons and careful political science analysis weave throughout and inform the discussion. Both students and presidency scholars will learn from this stimulating collection."

"This volume provides a comprehensive and timely appraisal of the Bush (43) administration. It systematically examines the governing style and policy choices of President George W. Bush across a wide range of topics, both foreign and domestic. It will be essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the administration’s political leadership as well as its decisions about the economy, Supreme Court nominations, the war in Iraq, and other key issues in American politics in the early twenty-first century. The thoughtful chapters written by noted scholars of the presidency will be informative for students and faculty alike."

“When a sports team takes the field to start a new year after a record-setting performance, hardly any observers predict that they'll repeat the winning season. Well, Campbell and Rockman are back and the prospects look good. They’ve re-tooled the line-up, matching the seasoned experience of the senior editors with the energy of a new addition, Andrew Rudalevige. And they’ve kept the great strength from their earlier volumes -- a consistent focus on the big questions behind the headlines -- embedding the analysis of Bush’s actions in thoughtful models of the constitutional balance among the branches of government, the influence of public opinion and interest groups, and the impact of an ideological policymaking system on foreign policy, the judiciary, and the military. Throughout, the writing manages to be at once vigorous, authoritative, and thought-provoking. This collection should be required reading for ill-informed talk show pundits, and it will surely strengthen the capacity of students and ordinary citizens to exercise their responsibility to hold the government accountable.”

“This book does something rare and valuable: it explains current American politics: it teaches political science; and does so in a way interesting to the professor as much as the students. Well-written, complete, and filled with unobtrusive but skilled political science, faculty will enjoy and benefit from this book just as much as their students. My students, professional students with a wide range of political and policy interest and knowledge, all benefited--the ones with advanced understandings of the issues and work in politics reacted to the high intellectual level, while the ones with less background in politics and political science saw both headlines and other course readings make sense in the various chapters.”

"The Bush Presidency has been a historic one, for better or for worse. If you want to understand and evaluate the legacy of George W. Bush, these senior scholars provide the guide posts with excellent scholarship and incisive writing."

Colin Campbell is Canada Research Chair in U.S. Government and Politics at the University of British Columbia. Previously, he was university professor of public policy at Georgetown University. He has published nine books, three of which have won awards.

Bert A. Rockman is currently professor of political science and department head at Purdue University. His books include The Leadership Question, which was awarded the Richard E. Neustadt Prize. He also has been a recipient Herbert A. Simon Award.

Andrew Rudalevige is chair of the political science department at Dickinson College and serves on the governing board of the American Political Science Association’s Presidency Research Section. In 2003–2004, he was a visiting research scholar at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. His first book, Managing the President’s Program, won the Richard E. Neustadt Award.