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[Abridged] Presidential Histories - 41.A) George Bush & the end of the Cold War, an interview with Jeff Engel
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41.A) George Bush & the end of the Cold War, an interview with Jeff Engel

[Abridged] Presidential Histories

11/11/24

40m

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George H.W. Bush presided over 4 of the most consequential years in world history. Before he entered office, a Cold War divided East and West: Democratic Capitalism vs Dictatorial Communism. After he left office, Democratic Capitalism had won. How did Bush usher in an age of American hegemony? And what role did he play in dramas ranging from the reunification of Germany to the independence of former soviet states like Russia and Ukraine?
Jeffrey Engel, Director of SMU's Center for Presidential History and author of numerous books on George H.W. Bush, including When the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War, discusses how Bush kept the peace without sacrificing American idealism at a time of dangerous global change.

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Previous Episode

undefined - 41.) George H.W. Bush
41.) George H.W. Bush

October 7, 2024

56m

“The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. And I’ll say to them: ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’” — George Bush's GOP Nomination Acceptance speech, Aug. 18, 1988.
"Poor George [Bush], he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." - Texas Governor Ann Richards at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
George H.W. Bush may have lived one of the most personally moving stories in all of presidential history. There's war. There's loss. There are great heights and great defeats. Through it all, Bush often appeared somewhat wooden. Unreachable. Unavailable. But beneath that was a man of deep emotions. Follow along as Bush fights in World War II, builds an oil empire in Texas, and rises through the ranks of GOP politics to the White House, where he contended with the end of the Cold War, the aggression of an Iraqi dictator, and an economic reckoning that threatened to be the undoing of his career.
Bibliography
1. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
2. When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War - Jeffrey Engel
3. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House - John Harris
4. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
5. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
6. Richard Nixon, the life – John A. Farrell
7. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
8. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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