Customer Reviews

The Seduction of Hillary Rodham

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Almost ten years have passed since the publication of this book. From before then and until recently, David Brock has appeared now and again on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," during which time he moved from the right to the left on the political spectrum, eventuating in his disavowal of the right-wing attack machine in which he had played such an important part. Compelled by a sudden interest in Hillary Rodham because of her possible run for president, I selected THIS book to educate myself on her because it was during the research and writing of it that Brock turned away from the dark side of the force. Something about her inspired him to take a political one-eighty, so one would assume that he shared in this book something of what it was that brought him to such illumination. I remember when it was released, right wingers were furious to learn that their heretofore reliable hitman hadn't delivered the magic bullet that would put an end to the Clintons, and Hillary in particular. Instead, Brock presented a detailed account of the influences that drive Hillary Rodham, and to a liberal's delight and a right winger's disdain, she's basically a deeply spiritual person, with her ideology steeped in Christianity, the type known as social gospel activism. It's hard to take the moral high ground in opposing her after these submissions, and you'll have to find something else to hate her for besides your affected righteous indignation.

The book focuses primarily on her moral influences, and shows how they consistently affected her. She had always been personally conservative, despite the influences of the campuses she attended in the 60s, shunning the libertinism, refraining from drugs, and remaining relatively chaste; politically she rejected the destructive anti-establishment revolutionary thinking preached by the harder activists. Her activism lay in the belief in making change within the system by altering how the law is viewed. It was all very fascinating stuff, and the reader will learn to split a hair or two.

What some readers in some of these reviews possibly objected to was the way Brock mentioned some of the rumors -- gossip, mostly from her detractors, alleging lesbianism or an affair with Vince Foster; the gossipers should make up their minds -- but these stories had to be discussed if the book was to have any credibility at all. Brock inserted some incredulity into the comments by putting them in the context of hardball politics played by her husband's political enemies, jealous backbiters, and sometimes just plain old Arkansas male chauvinism. When Hillary moved with Bill back to his home state, she didn't deal graciously with a male-dominated political system that resented strong women. Some of Bill's closest friends panned her. Her strenghts made them feel weak. From what I gleaned, she was committed to intelligence itself as a tool, as a gift, and as such, regarded it as an asset she was sure principled people would appreciate. This was not the case, as most people's agendas were less noble than her own. Eventually, she learned to play the political game, to take on APPEARANCES, using tactics every politician on Capital Hill uses every day, and, as in everything else she sets her mind to, she excelled in it. Lacking her practicality and her commitment to her long-range goals, some people were harshly critical of her, accused her of selling out. The truth is, she detested the political games even as she played them -- preferring instead entreaties to reason -- but she brushed aside her objections for what she felt was a greater good, the use of her gifts to make positive changes in society.

More instructional to the reader is the detailed accounting of the scandals that had eclipsed everything and anything else about the Clintons. The tableu that had played out via hundreds of insinuating soundbites was revealed as just a shadow play. The financial scandals were too complicated to be appreciated through snatches of news, and Brock here lays them out in detail, connects the dots, forming a cohesive story, and you realize that a lot was made of nothing, that the whole fiasco resulted from machinations of a partisan political system, polemics gone wild. He doesn't explicitly say so here in this book, as he does in a later one, but that is indeed the case.

Overall, it's a good read. Only one part was boring, an interminably long description of how people were selected for President Clinton's cabinet, a tedious detailing of the relationships Hillary relied upon to establish control. This is only a minor point. Most of the time, he moves along. Brock's criticisms were always accompanied with a mitigating point, describing Hillary in the context of a political food chain. And while Brock's criticisms seemed harsher toward the end of the book, the rest of it betrays his very high regard for her.

And why wouldn't he have a high regard? She possesses a moral conviction to advance society for everyone's benefit, and a superior intelligence at her disposal to aid her in accomplishing it, qualities that would add up to greatness in any other politician. Brock's main detraction is how Hillary dealt with a hostile poltical environment, that her education and her values inhered in her a more principled approach, one based on moral arguments she might deliver in a courtroom, and this worked to her detriment in the final analysis. But she's unable to set the rules, and thereby forced to play by them as they are. That's a small detraction in my estimation. By the time I had turned the last page, I had come to see her in an entirely new light, as one fine human being with only minor character flaws. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a clearer picture of her.

On the other hand, to the rabid Clinton bashers, I say this: Don't bother, as YOU won't get much out of it; it is simply not spiteful enough.

I disagree with the other reviews of this book. It is even-handed only if you consider damning with faint praise to be even-handedness. Brock's thesis is that while Bill Clinton is a sleaze bag; Hillary is a sincere committed radical--sort of a Emma Goldman with a law degree. While he does at times acknowledge that a double standard has been applied to the Clintons, as compared for example to the Bushes, he repeatedly denigrates Hillary by resorting to guilt by association. He trots out every associate she has ever had who has been involved in any liberal or left-wing cause and gives you their background in lurid detail. According to Brock, Hillary's intellectual development stopped in college or law school. I await his new book to see whether he really is ready to write an even-handed appraisal of the current political scene. In this book, he assumes that the liberals are naive or out to destroy basic American values. For example, he assumes that there wasn't merit at all to the Vietnam war protests or that anyone could actually believe that the war was both immoral and not in the interests of the United States of America.--Arthur Amchan

Given all of the bios out on Hillary Clinton including Gail Sheehy's new book, this is by far the best written and researched. It gives an interesting account of the compromises Hillary has had to make in her quest to help herself and her gifted, charismatic and deeply flawed husband reach the pinnacle of power.

I picked up this book to gain further insight on the Clinton's. I have read what I consider the most reliable and informative book on the "Boy Wonder" by David Maraniss (First in his Class), and I wanted to learn more about Hillary as she prepares to run for the Senate.

I found this book to be a fairly balanced and compelling book. Brock portrays Hillary as a intelligent, committed woman who made apparently bad choice to marry the Devil in Ms. Jones, and follow him from Yale to Arkansas, from triumph to tragedy. Brock portrays a woman who made a Faustian bargain in marrying Clinton and hasmany problems because of it. As he says, Brock believes that Hillary and Bill are some sort of co-dependents. I had this feeling after seeing how radiant she was after the accusations of Lewinsky started to arise two years ago.

Hillary Clinton comes across as a very sad woman who has chosen to look the other way during numerous transgrssions by her husband, both sexual and legal. To me I felt she is the perfect anti-feminist because she denied her own obvious gifts and subverted her own desires to get her husband elected President. Clinton himself comes across as a real doofus(just look at the wonderful pictures(the first one of Hillary is enough to make anyone regret living through the Sixties-YIKES! ). she comes across as a lonely woman, who is committed to her causes because of a belief in them, and because it must take her away from an obviously unhappy married life.

This book made me feel a real human affinity for Hillary. I don't agree with her politics, but I still think she is an interesting woman.

The President comes off like a real sleaze, and he seems to make her one as well by both association, conspiracy, and her own behavior.

Ultimately, she reminds me of those people in life who see life through their own granny glasses, and can't stand to have anyone disgree with them.

A worthwhile book!

This book is detailed, objective, complete, and a very readable book. Not gossipy . . . Not biased . . . Just plain GOOD. Highly recommended, even though it's not entirely up to date . . . (but don't we know enought about Bill/Monica, anyway? )

At the time of its hardcover release - 1996 - David Brock was the top-gun reporter for The American Spectator, writing several exposes on Anita Hill & Bill Clinton and penning a best-selling 1993 book, The Real Anita Hill.

With a dour photo of Hillary Rodham gracing the front cover of the hardcover edition - a la Hill's picture on the less-than-flattering biography - it appeared at first glance that Brock was positioned to attack the then First Lady through new revelations and late-breaking angles.

In this case, the picture is quite deceptive, as Brock writes a straight-forward unauthorized biography of Rodham, where journalism pushes sensationalism into the gutter, with a focus on the core values which led her into the political arena before her marriage to Bill Clinton.

Brock depicts Rodham coming of age in the 1960s, growing up in a conservatative suburb of Chicago, Illinois, having an early education in Republican politics. Her political conversion can be summed up in a line from her 1969 Wellesley College commencement address: "And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible."

What appeared to be a fast-track to a career in politics - after a stint as a staffer on the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate investigation - Rodham abandons this quest, marries Clinton and moves to Arkansas. Brock meticulously moves through this period of professional triumph, setbacks and personal anguish within a rocky partnership caused by Clnton's peccadilloes.

By striding past banner headlines and finger-pointing accusations, Brock shows a profile in courage due to following the whims of the heart, which is a timeless tale.

I read this book when it was first issued. The more time passes, the less impressed I am by the work.

At the timethe book was issued, I noted what must have been a very painful episode in the subject's life, at least as Brock reports it.

According to Daivd Brock, for her entire life, Hillary Rodham's mother urged her daughter to excell at academics. Yet when Hillary received the singular honor of giving the commencement address at her college, an event that brought her national attention at a young age, Brock reports that Hillary's mother was not in attendence. That struck me as what must have been a particularly bittersweet moment in the young Ms. Rodham's life. To work so hard for approval and then receive none.

Several years later, in a biography that received cooperation from the First Lady, Gail Sheehy reported that it was Hugh Rodham, Hillary's beloved father, who had skipped her famous commencement address in lieu of other pressing activities.

Mistaking the subject's mother for the subject's father strikes me as a rather serious factual error for a biographer.

This is the book conservatives throughout Washington were waiting for, panting at the thought that David Brock would do to Hillary Rodham Clinton what he had done in an earlier book to Anita Hill. Conservatives, who love to posture about honesty in journalism and such places, were disappointed to discover that David Brock had indeed written an honest book, but, alas, one which gave the lie to the fulminations of the bow-tied clad class of ninnies who make their living cluck-cluck-clucking over the efforts of some to come to terms with the greed and callousness of the modern world. For that reason alone, this is a book worth reading.

The other, better, reason is of course the subject of the book herself. Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the most significant women in American history. She has not (let us hope) reached the pinnacle of her career. In truth, she would have (will?) made a better president than her more politically-skilled husband. While she is still, like many beautiful women, an enigma, this book helps to understand her as no other book has yet done.

A wild story, full of interesting "insider" stories and gossip about the Clintons and their circle. In short: Hillary -- morally correct but misunderstood; Bill -- EVIL. One begs the question: what was David Brock's real agenda for this book? His earlier scathing attacks on All That Is Clinton makes one question wonder from where this burst of pro-Hillaryism comes.

David Brock's Seduction is a great read, and it will be curious to see this work rise on AMAZON's sales list now that Hillary has lifted her skirts for a run to the White House (watch those cankles!).

Brock's Seduction of Hillary Rodham will satisfy no one on the tails of the normal distribution of those with an opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRM HRC).

Which makes it a surprisingly honest book, but one that mostly lays the blame of her political development on the round heals of her opportunistic and amoral husband.

Still, Brock's prose packs a punch, and his journalism alternates between thorough and tedious to sloppy and careworn. Errors a plenty, but about evenly divided into the camp of ones that hurt HRC and ones that help her, so no prize on elevating one error over the other to prove an ideological point on the one-upmanship game.

This book was originally commissioned by The American Spectator and offered as a subscription renewal premium, so it would be fair to anticipate that there might be a slant or agenda attached. Yet delivery of Seduction was delayed for a good while, both from Brock's missing deadlines, and the ultimate lukewarm conclusion the book comes to about HRC: she's not the devil incarnate, nor particularly great, nor hopelessly Lady Macbeth, but rather an intelligent ambitious pol of the old entitlement school of rule and divide spoils. The editors of The AmSpec were probably not amused, but by then articles were appearing about Brock's private life and journalistic techniques in The Washington Post. The book disappointed everyone, and eventually Brock was given the heave-ho from AmSpec (deserved) but well remembered and thanked for his great book The Real Anita Hill (also deserved).

The two weakest areas are Hilary's handling of Federally subpoenaed documents for the Whitewater investigation (she hid and suppressed them is about the only logical conclusion you could come to) and her amazing 10 sigma event of earning 1000% returns on cattle futures glancing at headlines in the Wall Street Journal (I have a bridge to sell you, comes with the Eiffel Tower). But neither Hilary haters nor Hilary defenders (she doesn't need them) will be happy with this book.