Book Review: Family of Secrets - The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America by Russ Baker

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Russ Baker’s massive tome, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces that Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America, is a taxing and multifaceted read that is ultimately gratifying due to its sheer scope and staggering implications.

Baker is an investigative journalist and the founder of the compelling WhoWhatWhy/the Real News Project, a nonpartisan and non-profit investigative news organization. He has written for Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Nation, the Washington Post, and several other publications that many will instantaneously shame depending on personal bias and/or suspicion.

While there would be many individuals to attempt to discredit this book and throw it out as a partisan hack job, ignoring Family of Secrets would be a miscalculation for adherents to either American political philosophy.

Baker is careful, graceful, and agonizingly comprehensive in his narrative of the Bush Dynasty. He traces the history of the family back to where it all began and draws parallels between George H.W. Bush (Poppy Bush) and George W. Bush with smooth lines, presenting his compilation of facts in clear language without partisan drivel.

That is not to say that Baker’s book is merely a set of facts regurgitated on pages in mild text, mind you. The author does reach for some conclusions at times and draws some rather serious implications regarding the links between the Bush Dynasty, the CIA, and the Kennedy Assassination. While Baker never fully plays out a straight indictment, it’s pretty clear as to the direction he intends us to go with his throng of facts.

And his arguments are compelling, as he has conscientiously assembled such an array of facts and statistics from a broad spectrum of sources. Baker appears to lean neither left nor right, offering criticism of JFK a breath away from condemnation of Nixon or the Bushes. Indeed, it seems Baker’s goal is truth.

Article Author: Jordan Richardson

Jordan Richardson is a Canadian freelance writer and ne'er-do-well. He writes stuff here and here.

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