Going to Windward: A Mosbacher Family Memoir

In a lifetime filled with exhilarating successes, heartbreaking failures, and tragic personal loss, Robert A. Mosbacher Sr. proved himself adept at navigating in calm seas and high winds alike. Whether besting the stiffest of national and international competition in a diverse array of amateur sailing championships over the course of a half century, or helping to chart his candidate’s course across the American political landscape on the way to the White House in 1989, Mosbacher was never one to turn his back on any goal to which he had dedicated himself. Now, in this informative, entertaining, and deftly written memoir composed with the assistance of writer and trusted friend James G. McGrath, Mosbacher chronicles, in his own words, a life well spent. His perspective informed by everything from his father’s meager childhood and remarkable successes as a trader on the New York Curb Exchange to his own three years of service as Secretary of Commerce in George H. W. Bush’s administration, Mosbacher, the grandson of immigrants, possessed a distinctive vantage point on U.S. business and politics. In this volume of tightly woven, lively memories, he takes readers on an unforgettable ride with his father through the New York City of the 1930s, narrates his discovery of a huge natural gas field in the 1950s, and tells of his deepening involvement with the business and political power structures of Texas and the nation, beginning in the 1970s. Along the way, Mosbacher offers insights from family, business, and public life, with stories that engage, charm, and instruct. A must-read for Texas, political, business, and energy historians as well as general readers everywhere, Going to Windward is an American success story that will warm the heart and capture the imagination.

About the Author :
THE HONORABLE ROBERT A. MOSBACHER, United States Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992, was a Trustee Emeritus for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and past chairman of the Americas Society/Council on the Americas. He served on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute, Texas Commerce Bank, and New York Life Insurance Company and was the founding owner of Houston’s Mosbacher Energy Company. Robert A. Mosbacher died January 24, 2010. JAMES G. MCGRATH, who worked as a writer and editor at the White House from 1991 to 1993, serves as President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush’s media consultant, producing speeches, statements, press events, and video presentations. McGrath also edited a collection of George H. W. Bush’s speeches and statements, compiling them in Heartbeat: George Bush in His Own Words (Simon & Schuster, 2001). He lives in Houston.

Review :

"...an easy and interesting read, offering a fascinating behind-the-curtains view of how political economy and personality come together into power blocs"--Gary A. Keith, Southwestern Historical Quarterly