Intensely loyal, contemptuous of the press and overwhelmingly hostile to any form of public disclosure, the Bushies did a remarkable job of keeping their doings hidden for eight years.

Benson bemoans the fact that, today, access to politicians and celebrities is so obsessively controlled by publicists (whom he calls "the lowest form of life"), press secretaries, and other handlers.

The Nurture Assumption has recently been reissued in an expanded and revised form (Free Press, 2009).