When the world seemed new

With just under 70 pages of notes, many ending in ‘BPL, Bush Presidential Library’, Jeffrey Engel's study of the first Bush presidency is likely to remain a reference-point for decades to come. Engel, formerly located at the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University, had sustained and systematic access to the sources, buttressed by direct engagement with protagonists and their publications and memoirs. When the world seemed new is a steady and judicious account of US foreign policy at the tumultuous end of the Cold War. Though ghosts remained after his period in office—Iraq, Osama bin Laden, NATO's expansion—Bush reluctantly left the White House in 1993, ‘leaving behind what might have been the most powerful state in human history’ (p. 474). That his son would choose to undo so much gain in US power and potential, Bush could not know. Engel sets the tone early with two epigraphs. The first, by Thomas Paine, ‘We have it in our power to begin the world over again’, implies that this is what Bush did. But he also quotes Bush, from 1991, ‘I come back to the word of prudent—managing ... and resist flamboyant actions’ (p. ix). The chapters dissect the managerial style, self-effacement and prudence of Bush's presidency—conservative and preservative at a time of rapid change and global opportunity. Bush's steady hand on the tiller guided the US through the period

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