The chapter on the invasion of Afghanistan and the post-9/11 launching of the “global war on terror,” for example, credits Woodward’s book, Bush at War, in 19 different footnotes. A practiced reader of contemporary political nonfiction will find few new facts or anecdotes in these pages, which rely heavily on the works of topnotch journalists like Bob Woodward, Peter Baker, and Jane Mayer various Bush family memoirs and - for the pre-presidential years - biographers Kitty Kelley and Bill Minutaglio. Smith did not have access to his subject, nor to internal documents from the Bush White House, and he appears to have conducted relatively little primary research. To the extent that Smith sets the tone for future historians and biographers, Bush seems destined for the dregs of the presidential barrel, along with such illustrious predecessors as James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. If W.’s friends and family have been hoping that “history” might give Bush vindication, they will be disappointed. With this very judgmental work, the author aims to craft a foundational verdict on the 43rd president of the United States. Smith brings yet another approach to Bush, a new biography of George W. And he has offered provocative reappraisals of oft-maligned men like Ulysses S. He has introduced us to worthy folks short-changed by history, like Army General Lucius Clay, the hero of the Berlin Airlift. He has produced magisterial scholarship, laboring long in the stacks to publish the authoritative life of John Marshall, the first chief justice of the U.S.

Accomplished biographer Jean Edward Smith brings a range of takes and talents to his work.

John Marshall by Jean Edward Smith