Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies, 1989-1993

By John Podhoretz

Book Overview

The best of times at the White House becomes the worst, and a Reagan-Bush staffer and speechwriter lives to tell the hilarious tale of a presidency winding up for a collective breakdown. National... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671796488
• ISBN13: 9780671796488
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Heck of a Book

Finding books about the first Bush Presidency is not that easy so when I came upon this one I gave it a shot. I knew that the author is a conservative columnist so I was expecting a rather right leaning account, but I was wrong. Either Bush put the authors wife in jail, took away his kids or killed his dog because the level of dislike he has from all things Bush is really something. Reading this book was like watching a boxing match were one guy just keeps getting hit, the author kept the zingers coming from everything from domestic policy issues to haircuts. The book is not a all encompassing overview of the Bush years. It is an interesting and well written account of an inside the administration view from that second or third tear seats. The author found smart and funny comments on all topics and never were there dull spots in the book. Overall the book is great, my only complaint was that it was not longer.

Still one of the best books about Bush-41

"Hell of a Ride" may not, from the standpoint of history, be the equivalent of Henry Kissinger's memoirs. But it's still, for my money, one of the most useful, insightful, and entertaining looks at the political and psychological makeup of the Bush (41) White House.Podhoretz is especially good on the tensions between the true-blue Reaganite holdovers and the "moderate," "pragmatic" Bushies -- tensions that not only tore at the Bush presidency but at the GOP as a whole. 41 himself emerges as a man who was, if anything, too nice a guy for the presidency. His insistence, post-election, that OEOB staffers take down a large sign declaring (prophetically?) "We'll be back!" so as not to display "poor sportsmanship" is a fascinating contrast, viewed a decade later, with the GAO's evidence of vandalism carried out by departing Clinton staffers.Podhoretz writes with flair, energy, and a good eye for both politics and comedy. Go ahead and read Baker and Scowcroft for the nitty-gritty. Podhoretz has the atmosphere.

Hell of a Read

This is such a great book, full of the rage that only comes from betrayal. The surprise is the humor; how many political books are laugh out loud funny? The last chapter is chilling, and the strongest piece ever written on why Bush was rejected, and why he deserved to be rejected