The Last Republicans

This dual biography offers “a captivating, intimate portrait of one of the country's most important political dynasties”—often in their own words (Doris Kearns Goodwin).

In this revealing, often poignant work, presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove tracks the presidents of George Bush and his son George W. Bush from their formative years through their post-presidencies. He also examines the failed presidential candidacy of Jeb Bush, derailing the Bush presidential dynasty. 

Drawing extensively on exclusive access and interviews with both Bush presidents, Updegrove reveals for the first time their influences and perspectives on each other’s presidencies; their views on family, public service, and America’s role in the world; and their unvarnished thoughts on Donald Trump and the radical transformation of the Republican Party he now leads.

In 2016 George W. Bush lamented privately that he might be “the last Republican president.” The Last Republicans offers illuminating, moving portraits of the forty-first and forty-third presidents, as well as an elegy for the Republican “establishment,” which once stood for putting the interests of the nation over those of any single man.