The Last Patrician President: A Biography Reassesses the Legacy of George H.W. Bush

‘George H. W. Bush and the End of the American Establishment’By Laurence JurdemBombardier Books, 304 pages President George H.W. Bush was a consummate figure of the Wasp American establishment. Campaigning for president in 1992, Bush stood in a supermarket marveling at a checkout scanner, as if he had never before seen this wonder of technology, already in operation for more than a decade. It seemed to reveal how out of touch he was with everyday Americans.No matter that in fact he was admiring what Laurence Jurdem calls “a more advanced model,” the damage was done. Bush appeared as a relic of an earlier age and a privileged class that believed it was entitled to rule. That he was a heroic World War II pilot, that he was schooled all his life to work hard and earn the right to serve his country, as his father, Senator Prescott Bush had done, and that generations of the family had pursued not as a birthright but as a noble calling, got lost in the cry for a new generation of leadership and for the end of his incumbency.Bush’s service as CIA director, vice-president, and in many other government positions, actually worked to his detriment as the likes of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — younger and less experienced — were seen as agents of a welcome change to a highly taxed electorate in a poorly performing economy.Mr. Jurdem’s timely biography shows how adventurous and wise Bush 41 was — quickly and effectively shutting down the invasion of Kuwait and containing thuggish Saddam Hussein while not preening over his victory so as to alienate foreign leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev, seeking to reform the Soviet Union, still America’s principal adversary.Bush was better than his successors at governing, Mr. Jurdem argues. He called on a wide range of advisors, not just those who had helped bring him to power. Mr. Jurdem cites many conservative pundits and scholars such as George Will, Joseph Epstein, Ross Douthat, Richard Brookhiser, and David Brooks, but his historical perspective includes, as well, the insight of social and cultural historians like Christopher Lasch who in “The Revolt of the Elites” identifies what was lost in the defeat of Bush 41: “Thanks to the decline of old money and the old money ethic of civic responsibility, local and regional loyalties are sadly attenuated.”That Mr. Jurdem is not simply arguing a conservative point of view is evident in this comparison: “Truman’s strength, like that of George Bush, lay in his humility and his understanding of the importance of surrounding himself with experienced advisors such as Acheson, Harriman, and Lovett.” Those three figures — all diplomats — had been schooled in the FDR administration, and Truman, without a patrician background, nonetheless understood the value their experience brought to good government and foreign relations.In effect, Mr. Jurdem is arguing that while the patrician world has vanished, many of its core values are badly in need of restitution, and a figure like Bush thus can serve as a focal point for American renewal. It may seem old fashioned for a biography to tout a hero, but it is hard to gainsay Peggy Noonan’s tribute to Bush: “The lesson of that life was clear: He worked for it, he poured himself into it. He gave it everything he had. He made sacrifices to be who he was.”Part of an American renewal, the book argues, is to be found in what makes George H. W. Bush a paradoxical but instructive figure of the past who is also relevant to the present: “The exclusive network of elite prep schools, Ivy League universities, top law firms, investment banks, and social clubs began to open to a broader range of talent. The same institutions that had once molded leaders like George Bush and his forebears became pathways allowing a more diverse and competitive generation to rise, ultimately reshaping the American elite.”To celebrate his 90th birthday, Bush, no longer able to walk, parachuted from a helicopter. This was no stunt, Mr. Jurdem notes, but rather an example of Theodore Roosevelt’s dedication to “’the strenuous life,’ a philosophy that pushed one to pursue challenges that were not only personally fulfilling but also contributed to the common good.”Elite and elites are not dirty words in Mr. Jurdem’s book. That is so long as who belongs to them continues to change as an imperative to seek the common good.Mr. Rollyson’s ‘Making the American Presidency: How Biographers Shape History’ will be published on Presidents’ Day 2027.

The Last Patrician President: A Biography Reassesses the Legacy of George H.W. Bush

The Last Patrician President: A Biography Reassesses the Legacy of George H.W. Bush

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