Synopses & Reviews
More than any president in recent memory, George W. Bush invokes the language of good versus evil and right versus wrong. Controversial professor of ethics Peter Singer has put his spotlight on President Bush's moral claims. The results are required reading.
Examining public pronouncements that have rarely been subjected to ethical analysis, on topics from stem-cell research and tax cuts to Iraq and the drive for American preeminence, The President of Good and Evil reveals the president's pattern of ethical confusion and self-contradiction. Delivering his charges in accessible, logical, and lively chapters, Singer asks whether Bush has lived up to the values so often touted in current presidential prose.
Published just as the 2004 election frenzy heats up, The President of Good and Evil follows in the bestselling traditions of Stupid White Men and Blinded by the Right. Singer has never shied away from controversy, and now enters the most visible arena of his life, with powerful arguments that throw new light on America under Bush.
Review
"Singer is a generous critic....[But he] is led, on issue after issue, to a double conclusion: Bush's views are not intellectually defensible, and his behavior shows he doesn't believe in them anyway." The New York Times
Review
"Singer suggests, plausibly and scarily, that a brand of Manichaeism best represents [Bush's] religious outlook the idea of a force of evil in the world, with an apocalyptic Second Coming imminent and America as the divinely appointed nation set to destroy the forces of Satan." Washington Post Book World
Review
"Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly among the most influential." The New Yorker
Synopsis
A controversial professor of ethics takes the words of George W. Bush seriously and puts his spotlight on Bush's claims to be a president who knows what is good and what is evil.