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Title details for The Call to Serve by Jon Meacham - Available

The Call to Serve

The Life of an American President, George Herbert Walker Bush

by Jon Meacham
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In honor of the one hundredth anniversary of George H. W. Bush’s birth, this visually stunning chronicle features never-before-published photos and memories celebrating the forty-first president’s vision of leadership as service to country—curated by Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham.
Lavishly illustrated, The Call to Serve is an intimate, illuminating portrait of the forty-first president, a man who was so much more than just his politics. In words and images—many found in a lifetime of scrapbooks kept by Barbara Pierce Bush—Jon Meacham brings George H. W. Bush vividly to life. From the values of integrity, empathy, and grace that Bush learned in childhood to his leadership at the highest levels in tumultuous times, the forty-first president embodied an ideal of service that warrants attention in our own divided time.
Bush pursued a life of service to America through his heroic combat experience in the Pacific during World War II, his political rise in Texas, his serving as U.S. ambassador to the UN, his time as envoy to China and as director of the CIA, his tenure as Ronald Reagan’s vice president, and his election as the forty-first president of the United States. Set against the background of America during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this book commemorates the legacy of a man who was far from perfect—he could be cutthroat on the campaign trail—but whose ambition was not an end unto itself. Bush’s drive to succeed was, rather, a means to put the values of balance, patriotism, and respect for others into action in the political arena. Toward the end of Bush’s life, the forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, said that Bush put the country first “both before he was president, while he was president, and ever since.”
Featuring more than 450 photographs, Meacham’s introduction and commentary throughout, and narration drawn from his biography of George H. W. Bush, Destiny and Power, this is an essential tribute to a uniquely American life.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 28, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780593729472

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780593729472
      • File size: 290743 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2024

      Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize--winning biographer who has written about Abraham Lincoln, John Lewis, and Thomas Jefferson, returns to the subject of George H.W. Bush, after Destiny and Power. To mark the 100th anniversary of Bush's birth, Meacham delivers a 450-photo-rich text that mines Destiny but adds a new introduction and commentary throughout. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      June 1, 2024
      The prolific presidential historian offers a photo-heavy look at the life of George H.W. Bush (1924-2018). "Don't brag about yourself. Let others point out your virtues, your strong points." That was a late-in-life piece of advice from the former president, whose parents offered a list of his son's virtues on an admissions form for Phillips Academy, pointing out that "Walker" was considerate and "learns easily and rapidly" though also was "less neat than we consider desirable." The grown-up Walker would remedy the demerit. After heroic service in World War II as a Navy pilot, he put himself together smartly, became successful in the oil business in Texas, and then entered politics. As Meacham notes in this heavily illustrated tribute, which serves as a complement to his 2015 bio, Destiny and Power, the political road was tough. Bush lost both of his senatorial races to Democrats in 1964 and 1970 after having won a seat in the House of Representatives. A fine moment of political history comes when Bush, hat figuratively in hand, visits Lyndon Johnson to ask whether he should try for the Senate, to which Johnson replied, "The difference between being a member of the Senate and a member of the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit." Bush later took jobs that he didn't necessarily want but assumed dutifully, notably head of the Republican National Committee under Richard Nixon, whom, in a letter reproduced here, he encouraged to resign during the Watergate hearings. Meacham notes Bush's evenhandedness as president, thinking of himself as "a steady steward" without the rhetorical flair of his predecessor. Indeed, he was the last of the quietly competent Republicans, a breed now extinct--and worthy of this historical reminder of their existence. As much a keepsake volume as a biography, but rich in insights on the 41st president.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
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  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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