A groundbreaking look at the lives of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, the most consequential father-son pair in American history, often in their own words. In this revealing, often poignant work, presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove tracks the two Bush presidents from their formative years through their post-presidencies and 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." Donald Trump's election marked the end not only to the Bushes' hold on the White House, but of a rejection of the Republican principles of civility and international engagement and leadership that the Bushes have long championed. 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.

In innumerable ways, we still live in LBJ's America. More than half a century after his death, Lyndon Baines Johnson continues to exert profound influence on American life. This collection skillfully explores his seminal accomplishments—protecting civil rights, fighting poverty, expanding access to medical care, lowering barriers to immigration—as well as his struggles in Vietnam and his difficulty responding to other challenges in an era of declining US influence on the global stage. Sweeping and influential, LBJ's America probes the ways in which the accomplishments, setbacks, controversies and crises of 1963 to 1969 laid the foundations of contemporary America and set the stage for our own era of policy debates, political contention, distrust of government, and hyper-partisanship.

President Lyndon B. Johnson played a monumental role in America's quest for civil rights. The legacy of those efforts reached a crescendo from April 8 through 10, 2014, as the LBJ Presidential Library hosted a historic Civil Rights Summit to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. A host of luminaries-including President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold the nation's highest office, and former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter-came to the LBJ Library to recognize the progress made in the country's long, often troubled, journey toward civil rights. "We are not caretakers of the past," LBJ said as president, "but are charged with the construction of tomorrow." Accordingly, he wanted his presidential library to be a "springboard to the future," a place that would be not only a repository of things past, but a forum to explore the issues of our day. In that spirit, Destiny of Democracy reflects on Johnson's legacy of civil rights and commemorates the historic summit. Heroes of the civil rights movement shared the summit's spotlight with those who are making a difference today. The three former presidents and President Obama also weighed in, each praising the courage and conviction manifested by Johnson in carrying out his civil rights agenda, but also warning that while the laws he brought to bear are in place, there is still work to be done.