With Rebel-in-Chief, veteran political reporter Fred Barnes provides the defining book on George W. Bush’s presidency, giving an insider’s view of how Bush’s unique presidential style and bold reforms are dramatically remaking the country—and, indeed, the world. In the process, Barnes shows, the president is shaking up Washington and reshaping the conservative movement.

Barnes has gained extraordinary access to the Bush administration for Rebel-in-Chief, conducting rare one-on-one interviews with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and many other close presidential advisers. That access, along with Barnes’s extensive independent reporting and interviewing, produces an eye-opening look at this highly consequential—and controversial—presidency.

Rebel-in-Chief reveals:

• How Bush acts as an “insurgent force” in the nation’s capital—“a different kind of president” who is turning the Washington establishment on its ear

• How Bush is redefining conservatism for a new era—and creating a new Republican majority

• The inside story of how Bush has revolutionized American foreign policy—and how the president's crusade for democracy would have been anathema to Bush himself only five years ago

• When and why Bush decided to go into Iraq, even knowing that he was putting his political future at risk

• How a White House aide you've probably never heard of is shaping the Bush vision

• The surprising and important ways Bush's faith affects critical presidential decisions

• How Bush has outmaneuvered his political opponents and surprised members of the press who have dismissed him as an intellectual bantamweight

• How Bush routinely defies conventional wisdom because of his contempt for elite opinion and halfway reforms (“small-ball,” he calls them)—and why he usually wins

George W. Bush billed himself as a “different kind of Republican.” He has proved to be a different kind of president, too. And Fred Barnes’s riveting behind-the-scenes account helps us understand how much this “Rebel-in-Chief ” is reshaping the world around us.

Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook

From the Hardcover edition.

“A book so well worth reading that wise historians will long consult it for clues about what made Bush tick.” —National Review

“Barnes has made a good rough cut at placing [Bush] in historical context--and has offered a useful corrective to critics who profess to see nothing good, much less historically important, about our current president.” —Wall Street Journal

“The gifted political reporter . . . shows both his politics (conservative) and his reporting skills (still razor-sharp) in this entertaining look at the meaning of Mr. Bush. Rebel-in-Chief deserves wide reading outside the self-important circles that inhabit the nation’s capital.” —New York Sun

“Does an excellent job analyzing the private as well as public [Bush] . . . Filled with other interesting revelations . . . Entertaining, lucid, and thought-provoking.” —American Spectator

“Think you know the real George W. Bush? You’re wrong. Fred Barnes has managed to entice a surprisingly private man to reveal important hidden aspects of himself and his very consequential presidency.” —Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“No one in the Washington press corps understands George W. Bush better than Fred Barnes. He provides the best picture we have had yet of a president who is, as Barnes writes, ‘an inner-directed man in an other-directed town.’ I couldn’t put it down.” —Michael Barone, senior writer, U.S. News & World Report

“Crackling with fine reportage and analysis. Barnes knows this subject better than anyone.” —Rich Lowry, editor, National Review

“I know Fred Barnes and I thought I knew what he knows about President Bush. Boy, was I wrong. This book is a revelation. I couldn’t stop reading it.” —Brit Hume, host, Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Brit Hume

“A one-of-a-kind journalistic feat—getting inside the president’s view of himself and the presidency. Only Fred Barnes with his clear conservative credentials and unique access to the president could write this book. This is a direct and passionate trip into the heart of Bush country. Lucky for history.” —Juan Williams, senior correspondent, NPR

“George W. Bush is not an easy president to understand or to appreciate, even for his supporters. Now one of the nation’s great political reporters goes beneath the surface to reveal the president’s passion and vision. This is must-reading for Bush backers and Bush bashers alike.” —Robert D. Novak, nationally syndicated columnist

From the Hardcover edition.

From the Hardcover edition.