About book A Woman In Charge: The Life Of Hillary Rodham Clinton (2007)
A political junkie friend of mine gave me this thick biography of Hillary Clinton published in 2007, telling me it was a good book. I was skeptical, but he was right. It's well-written, well-researched, balanced and yet painful to read because of its detailed account of Hillary Clinton's grim experiences married to Bill Clinton.Hillary Rodham was a smart, take-charge girl who grew up under the heavy thumb of a brutish boor of a father and seemed determined--was determined, I should say--to prove that neither he nor life nor anything could keep her down. She excelled in school, in volunteer political work, in college and law school, and in the early phases of her post-education life, pursuing matters of policy that mattered to her: social justice, children's rights, gender equality, civil rights, and opposing the war in Vietnam. She was not a radical feminist or leftist or anything of the kind. She believed in principles, but she also believed in reason, problem-solving, and dialogue.Along came Bill Clinton and she fell, as we know, madly in love with him, but she hesitated to marry him for a long time. She already knew, everyone knew, that Bill had a thing about fooling around. But he persisted in courting her, and he was brilliant and they agreed on the need for progressive political change. So they got hitched.In a way, Hillary locked herself into an emotionally abusive marriage very similar to her emotionally abusive upbringing. Bernstein doesn't quite say it this way, but there it is. Bill was a test as her father was a test, and no matter how long it took, Hillary was going to pass that test.As Bernstein presents it, the Clintons' cohort considered Hillary as likely to succeed on a national scale as Bill when they were starting out. In some ways, she was better known, and in some ways, she had more political experience, including an intense Washington experience as a staffer on the Senate committee investigating Watergate. But she married Bill, went to Arkansas and passed up a lot of personal opportunities that a more assertive feminist would have seized. Meanwhile, Bill ascended the political ladder from state attorney general to governor, and Hillary had Chelsea and succeeded as an attorney in Little Rock. All the time, however, Bill was wandering, skirmishing with skirts, presenting her with the kinds of challenges she'd been born into: the double bind of loving your father and knowing he is contemptible and loving your husband and knowing he is contemptible, too.Real agony began toward the end of Bill's governorship and intensified in The White House, where Hillary started out making an incredible series of missteps,most significantly bungling national health care even though, smart as she was, she understood the needs and issues as well as or better than anyone.Hillary struck people as bossy, arrogant, and indifferent to the cultural norms of Washington. She assumed she had been elected right along with Bill (Bill thought so, too), but that's not the way it works. There can only be one president at a time even though several hundred people in Washington think that the president ought to be him or her . . . and they didn't think it ought to be Hillary. I frankly cringed as I read about how she treated senior White House staff and Cabinet members. Inevitably, she flamed out in the biggest failure of her life--her national health care proposal was, as they say on Capitol Hill, d.o.a. (dead on arrival.)But that humiliation was just the beginning. There really was (and still is) a vast right wing conspiracy gunning for the Clintons. Whitewater led to Vince Foster's suicide led to Paula Jones led to Monica Lewinsky. Each stop along the way was brutal for Hillary (and Bill, too, but this book is about Hillary).She didn't give in completely because, I think, she had that determination forged in her as a child, a commitment to the same kind of policies as Bill, and a degree of religious faith that might be news to people who have not read this book. Christianity, in fact, is something she has thought about as much as she has thought about health care or education or social justice. It has given her the strength to endure having her privacy and family ripped asunder.Hillary would despair but not give in. She would consider giving in a gift to enemies who did not deserve that gift, so she would rebound, strategize, and re-engage her excellent mind in the eight year battle that was Bill's presidency.Why anyone would sacrifice as much as she did is a good question. In fact, why anyone would want to be president is a good question. A life led at that level does not have to be sordid, but it is fraught with constant pressure, demands, uncertainties, and tests of one's moral compass.Bernstein's book ends with a kind of coda. Hillary escaped Bill's shadow to a certain extent when she ran for and won a senate seat while still First Lady. The degree to which he incinerated himself freed her. She became a thoughtful, courteous, deferential junior senator, but of course, she still had that national standing, which set her apart no matter what she did to observe the senate's written and unwritten rules. And she also had the drive and determination and intelligence that made people think, back in the 60s and 70s, that she would be even more likely to succeed than Bill.Going beyond Bernstein's book, we know Hillary ran for president, wouldn't give in to Obama's obvious victory in the campaign for the Democratic nomination for the longest time (she just isn't built to give in), and then served as a reasonably effective Secretary of State.When she left State (where I worked, too), I thought she was beat, flat-out exhausted, and I was right about that, but I was wrong when I said that she wouldn't have an appetite to campaign for president again. Persisting, unable to yield to her frailties or her foes, Hillary is on the trail again.Fortunately for her, she has learned a lot since her disastrous time as First Lady. She is incomparably prepared to assume the presidency. No competing aspirant knows more about America or the world. Indeed, she may return to The White House, where she will try to run a progressive administration, a problem-solving administration, though probably not an elevating, eloquent, visionary administration because she is a pragmatist and might realize that simply being the first woman elected as president is inspirational enough.Back to Bernstein: Though well-written, this is such a painful and detailed tale that it probably is a book for political junkies, not folks who like light reads. Its relevance today is the account it offers of someone who may be the next president. At times, Bernstein's editor should have insisted on smoothing out the narrative flow, but that's a quibble. I'll give it four stars. He's a dogged reporter and a fine writer.
This is a detailed and comprehensive account of the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, written by a well known investigative reporter after eight years of research. Bernstein examined hundreds of written materials and interviewed over 200 friends, associates, enemies and staffers to portray this intelligent and complex personality. This is not a small book and comes in at over 600 pages.As a young girl Hillary adored her tyrannical and domineering father and was always anxious to please him. During her school years, urged on by her teachers she developed deep religious feelings and became a lifelong and devout Methodist. While attending college she matured, dramatically left the left the conservative political leanings of her family and changed her allegiance from Republican to Democrat. She also immersed herself in the feminist battle for equality and developed a strong belief in the individual’s personal responsibility for service to the community and the world. She was academically brilliant at Yale law school and edited the Yale Law Review.When she met Bill Clinton and they became sweethearts, she left own her promising career behind. Instead of going to Washington or New York, she tied her coat tails to Bill and followed him to Arkansas. Many of her teachers, friends and supporters were devastated as some had already predicted she might become the first woman to become president of the United States. It seems from this time on, Hilary spent much of her life trying to establish her own identity.The book details the part she played in both Bill’s triumphs and his troubles as governor and later as President of the United States. It identifies her blind spots and explains her suspicions and misunderstanding of both the press and the opposition.Hillary is not an easy woman to understand. She is smart, driven, tightly wound and tenacious. She also has a long memory and if she is crossed she will always remember it. Her long relationship with Bill, through his many extramarital affairs and liaisons were painful, but she stoically lived through them as well as the worst of them: the humiliating Lewinski affair and the impeachment process. But following this stinging and embarrassing part of her life, she emerged once more to run for and win a Senate seat in New York, continuing that battle of trying to establish an identity which was not tied to Bill.An interesting well researched account of Hillary’s life, political career and the complex dynamic of the Rodham Clinton marriage.
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Whew - wow, what a mammoth read! This long extraordinarily well-researched book is almost as incessant and relentless as the campaign against Hillary and Bill Clinton.Bernstein offers a dense, warts-and-all read that covers more aspects and interviews than any biography I have read before in his efforts to uncover this complex and quite enigmatic woman. Despite the fact that she lived in the gold-fish bowl of the White House for 8 years, she is intensely private, making it difficult to get proper handle on a woman who has stirred such strong emotions in the US.I suspect, for now, this is as close and complete a portrait that we can expect of this remarkably intelligent and politically savvy woman who seems intent on moving back into her old digs. I found myself exhausted after every session with this book and can only imagine what it was like to live with the level of scrutiny and persecution they endured, on a daily basis. And yet, she seems hell-bent on doing it all again. What a remarkable woman!
—Amanda
A Woman in Charge by Carl Bernstein is easily the best biography written about Hillary Rodham Clinton. This is not surprising given the many great works previously written by Carl Bernstein. In A Woman in Charge Bernstein makes that case that Hillary Clinton is not easily defined by general political divides. The complex person of Hillary Clinton is not the champion of welfare liberalism that conservatives claim, she believes deeply in personal responsibility. She is not the anti-family pro abor
—Bryan
Until the last few years it would have been considered unusual to have a biographical tome delivered in the middle of one’s continued political assent (as opposed to years later.) But modern day campaigns have dictated that the ‘approved’ biography be released almost as a marketing tool of the political aspirant. Such is not the case here. Famed investigative reporter Bernstein spent the last eight years researching and writing this extensive book interviewing over 200 friends, enemies, staffers and acquaintances creating a broad and balanced portrait of one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics. From her domineering father to her Methodist upbringing in Park Ridge, Illinois, to her Yale law school days, political and legal life in Arkansas and finally to eight years on Pennsylvania Avenue, Bernstein paints a highly detailed picture of a woman who is gloves-off ambitious, determined in action, but sometimes confused in her approach and one who must continually make complex judgments (not always successfully – first term health care reform, for example) yet learn from her mistakes. Her long and twisting relationship with husband Bill is given a wide berth here as well. Bernstein pulls back the curtain on headlines from Whitewater to Clintongate as we learn much of the background now from the other half’s side. Her’s is a view that while generally concealed under a calm demeanor, is as conflicted and frustrated as it is often headstrong. The only regret is that, unlike what the title might imply, we get only a small view of what HRC is like when she really is in charge, meaning the years since she got out from under the shadow and served in the US Senate. The historical importance of this book is now inextricably tied to what happens at the polls.
—Blog on Books
