Made in Texas George W Bush & the Southern Takeover of American Politics

Everyone knows that President George W. Bush is from Texas. But few of us know the role his home state plays in his presidency, and in our country. In this dual biography of man and state, Michael Lind confronts the chief crises of Bush's presidency — the economy, the Middle East, and religious fundamentalism — and traces their roots back to Texas, a state, Lind argues, that yields salient clues to the future course of our country. Widely praised as an iconoclastic and brilliant political observer, Lind, a fifth generation Texan, chronicles the ethnic clash that produced modern Texas, the well-known plundering of the state's natural resources at the hands of its elites, and finally the deep strain of "Old Testament religiosity" which, having originated in Texas, now reaches all over the globe in the form of Bush's foreign policy.

In the tradition of Gary Wills's Reagan's America, Made in Texas provides a wholly original cultural history that should change the way we understand not just our president, but our country.

"A starting point for future debate about the economic, political and social origins of the Bush presidency." New York Times Book Review

"Forcefully argued, Lind's work presents a devastating critique of the politics of the Bush presidency, one that is at once convincing and alarming." Library Journal

"Lind delves deep into the heart of George W. Bush's Texas, and what he finds may give moderates pause and send liberals scurrying....[He] argues, with considerable verve, that the constellation of political beliefs embodying Bush-style politics is designed to exploit the nation's natural and human resources for the benefit of a powerful oligarchy." Publishers Weekly

"Lind delivers a heartfelt and stinging indictment of the Dixiecrats....This book lays bare some of the essential forces driving American politics and will likely achieve one of its main goals: to unmask Texas as a Southern rather than a Western state." Foreign Affairs

A scathing exposé of the political and cultural legacy of Texas, which tells us all we need to know--and fear--about George W. Bush

Everyone knows that President George W. Bush is from Texas. But few of us know the role his home state plays in his presidency, and in our country. In this dual biography of man and state, Michael Lind confronts the chief crises of Bush's presidency-the economy, the Middle East, and religious fundamentalism-and traces their roots back to Texas, a state, Lind argues, that yields salient clues to the future course of our country. Lind, an iconoclastic and brilliant political observer, provides a scathing exposé of the political and cultural legacy of Texas, which tells us all we need to know-and fear-about George W. Bush.

Michael Lind is a Senior Fellow of the New America Foundation. His three previous books of political journalism and history, The Next American Nation (1995), Up from Conservatism (1996), and Vietnam (1999), were each selected as New York Times Notable Books. He lives in Washington, D.C.