The Leadership of George Bush is infused with a sentimentality exemplified by the book\u27s opening statement describing the Bushes\u27 emotional response to Bush 43\u27s election to the presidency:  George Bush sat straight up, his back rigid but his chest heaving slightly as he sought to hold back tears. Barbara Bush sat quietly, unmovable, a glint of satisfaction and pride sparkling in her eyes.  Despite the author\u27s proximity and long-time affiliation, the book provides scant new information about Bush 41 \u27s presidency, mostly because the author fails to connect it with larger literatures on presidential leadership and executive management. Instead, it is a rosy peek at Bush 41 from a loyal subject still enamored with his former boss

Heldman, Caroline

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University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and
Social Sciences Great Plains Studies, Center for
Spring 2011
Review of The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's
View of the Forty-First President. By Roman Popadiuk
Caroline Heldman
Occidental College, heldman@oxy.edu
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Heldman, Caroline, "Review of The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-First President. By Roman Popadiuk"
(2011). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 1173.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch/1173
Book Reviews 
captions that provided at least the fundamental elements 
of who, what, where, and when. For example, the won-
derful series showing juvenile cranes through their first 
winter are not dated, making it impossible to track the 
progression of post juvenile molt in these birds. Several 
other species shown interacting or associating with the 
whooping cranes (sandhill crane, black-bellied whistling 
duck, American avocet, white-tailed deer, gray squirrel, 
peccary, blue crab) are not identified. Such omissions 
mean that this gorgeous volume missed the opportunity 
of providing substantial educational value, in addition 
to offering an unwritten testimony to the beauty of a 
magnificent endangered species and its fragile environ-
ment. Paul A. Johnsgard, School of Biological Sciences, 
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 
Cougar: Ecology and Conservation. Edited by Maurice 
Hornocker and Sharon Negri. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 2010. xiv + 306 pp. Maps, illustrations, fig-
ures, tables, appendices, references, index. $49.00 cloth. 
Historically, cougars (mountain lions, pumas, or pan-
thers) had an extensive distribution throughout the Amer-
icas, ranging from British Columbia in North America 
to Patagonia at South America's tip. As a native species 
and a large obligate carnivore, the cougar has a complex 
relationship with the human population in the Americas. 
This current book-the product of multiple authors, all 
with hands-on experience in cougar work, and written 
in a clear manner appropriate to most audiences-is an 
important addition to the scientific literature in the field 
of carnivore conservation in the New World. 
As a product of many authors, Cougar: Ecology and 
Conservation reads more like a textbook than a mono-
graph, each author contributing from his or her exper-
tise, an essential element for a volume covering diverse 
topics. Most chapters provide an instructive overview 
of the concepts later discussed in depth, an invaluable 
feature for the nonbiologist. Many of the authors include 
excellent scientific literature reviews, providing an ex-
tensive resource for readers interested in expanding their 
knowledge or consulting original works mentioned in the 
chapters. 
Part 1 of this four-part book discusses the history of 
cougars in the Americas as it relates to cougar evolution, 
human perception of cougars, and the evolution of cougar 
management. Cougars at the population level are the fo-
cus of part 2, with chapters covering populations in North 
America and two separate chapters offering insights into 
the current situation in South America. Insights into the 
115 
South American populations are particularly valuable to 
our knowledge of cougar conservation since many stud-
ies conducted in South America are published in Spanish 
and consequently missed by much ofthe North American 
scientific community. Part 3 moves from the population 
level to species and individuals, providing an excellent 
overview of studies conducted on behavior, social organi-
zation, diet and prey selection, cougar-prey relationships, 
and competition with other carnivores. 
The final part investigates conservation approaches in 
cougar management and the challenges faced as a conse-
quence of increasing human expansion and its pressures 
on natural cougar habitat. In addition to examining the 
importance of cougars as part of the ecosystem and their 
behavior with and without human presence, this section 
also reviews the politics involved in making decisions re-
garding cougar management and the history of changing 
views within both the general public and government. 
Since it deals with ecological concepts and practicali-
ties involved in large carnivore management in relation 
to the complexities oftoday's human population, Cougar: 
Ecology and Conservation provides a valuable resource 
for those interested in large carnivores in general as well 
as the cougar in particular. Oranit Gilad, Balanced Ecol-
ogy Inc., Kempner, Texas. 
The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of 
the Forty-First President. By Roman Popadiuk. College 
Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009. xvii + 227 
pp. Photographs, notes, index. $45.00 cloth. 
Roman Popadiuk had close and steady access to 
George H.W. Bush for most of his presidency. He served 
as the president's deputy assistant and press secretary 
for foreign affairs and was later appointed U.S. ambas-
sador to Ukraine. He is now the Executive Director ofthe 
George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. 
Popadiuk presents Bush 41 through varied lenses: 
his early life, leadership principles, public messaging, 
diplomacy, working with congress, and the 1992 cam-
paign. Through a collection of anecdotes on each topic, 
the reader gets a sense of the president's values and his 
management style. According to Popadiuk, Bush's guid-
ing values are his Episcopalian faith, his devotion to his 
family, and the importance of friendship. Barbara Bush 
explains that, for her husband, "it is better to have a friend 
than an enemy." 
In terms of Bush's leadership, Popadiuk explains that 
Bush 41 is guided by the importance of standing up for 
your beliefs, telling the truth, being loyal, communicating 
© 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 
116 
well, sharing the credit, and showing your human side. 
Contrary to prevailing notions of what went wrong for 
Bush in the 1992 election, Popadiuk blames the campaign 
staff for the loss, noting that Bush's anxiety during the 
campaign "pointed to the general lack of coordination and 
planning that seemed to grip the campaign." 
The chapter on Bush's early adult life focuses primar-
ily on the Great Plains. As a teenager attending Phillips 
Academy in Massachusetts, he was deeply impressed by 
Tolstoy's War and Peace. Instead of going straight to Yale 
after prep school, he joined the U.S. Navy and became 
their youngest pilot. Bush was shot down over the Pacific, 
earning him three Air Medals and the Distinguished Fly-
ing Cross. "After the war, Bush was determined, despite 
the privilege from which he came, to build his own life and 
shape his own future." So he moved from New England to 
West Texas. The young Bush couple initially toyed with the 
idea of becoming farmers after reading Louis Bromfield's 
novel, The Farm, but instead pursued oil exploration. Bar-
bara Bush recalls their move to Texas as "an adventure," 
and Bush 41 considers himself a Texan to this day. 
The Leadership of George Bush is infused with a sen-
timentality exemplified by the book's opening statement 
describing the Bushes' emotional response to Bush 43's 
election to the presidency: "George Bush sat straight up, 
his back rigid but his chest heaving slightly as he sought 
to hold back tears. Barbara Bush sat quietly, unmovable, 
a glint of satisfaction and pride sparkling in her eyes." 
Despite the author's proximity and long-time affiliation, 
the book provides scant new information about Bush 41 's 
presidency, mostly because the author fails to connect it 
with larger literatures on presidential leadership and ex-
ecutive management. Instead, it is a rosy peek at Bush 41 
from a loyal subject still enamored with his former boss. 
Caroline Heldman, Politics Department, Occidental 
College. 
Kansas Politics and Government: The Clash of Political 
Cultures. By H. Edward Flentje and Joseph A. Aistrup. 
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. xxiv + 263 
pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, appendices, notes, index. 
$70.00 cloth, $30.00 paper. 
Prior to the publication of Kansas Politics and Gov-
ernment, there was no essential book on Kansas politics, 
policy-making, and institutions. Now there is. It's as 
simple as that. Anyone who wants to understand the Sun-
flower State's politics should start here. 
Most prosaically, this is one more in the Nebraska 
Press's ambitious series of single-state studies. But Ed 
© 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 
Great Plains Research Vol. 21 No.1, 2011 
Flentje and Joe Aistrup (disclaimer: I write a column for 
Kansas papers in rotation with them and two other politi-
cal scientists) have done more than cover the breadth of 
the state's politics. In their emphasis on political cultures, 
they provide an effective way to think about Kansas poli-
tics and government over almost 150 years of statehood. 
The initial chapter lays out a theoretical approach that 
emphasizes the competing threads of liberty, order, and 
equality as central to the Kansas experience. Flentje and 
Aistrup note the various facets of these elements, which 
often pop up in unexpected, but complementary, ways. 
Thus, populists and progressives desire certain kinds of 
order, including governmental reform and prohibition, 
while the members of the business community seek 
predictability for investment and entrepreneurial activi-
ties. The authors make a real contribution in their con-
sideration of contemporary conservatives, mostly within 
the Republican Party, as "bipolar" in their simultaneous 
embrace of economic liberty and of order on social issues 
such as abortion. 
Books in this series face the difficult task of covering 
the whole of state government, while placing it within a 
fifty-state context. The authors do a good job here, all the 
while providing a real sense of what's singular about the 
state. For example, Republicans have always dominated 
Kansas politics; given that dominance, however, parsing 
the nature of the party's strength over time is crucial. 
Indeed, Democrats have occupied the governor's office 
for more years than Republicans since 1957, while never 
capturing a U.S. Senate seat in that period. 
The authors bring to their enterprise more than 
enough academic literature for the book to be useful for 
all students of state politics; for history buffs, it offers a 
start and a host of suggestions for further reading. 
There are some curious omissions, which are hard to 
avoid in such a work. No mention is made of the 2005 
creation of a new ind~pendent agency, the Kansas Health 
Policy Administration, which was a partisan political 
response to Governor Kathleen Sebelius's executive 
reorganization proposal for Medicare/Medicaid. More 
surprisingly, Flentje and Aistrup do not address the issues 
raised by Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kan-
sas? (2005), the most famous recent book dealing with 
the state. They clearly diverge from Frank's economic 
determinism, but Frank does generate some useful data 
and well-done interviews, which might have informed the 
arguments here. 
In the end, this is an impressive performance, and 
Kansas Politics and Government ranks as one of the best 
in the Nebraska series. For understanding Kansas and the 


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Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Leadership of George Bush: An Insider\u27s View of the Forty-First President. \u3c/i\u3eBy Roman Popadiuk

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