ABOUT THIS BOOK Carl Bernstein s stunning portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows us, as nothing else has, the true trajectory of her life and career with its zigzag bursts of risks taken and safety sought. Marshaling all the skills and energy that propelled his history-making Pulitzer Prize reporting on Watergate, Bernstein gives us the most detailed, sophisticated, comprehensive, and revealing account we have had of the complex human being and political meteor who has already helped define one presidency and may well become, herself, the woman in charge of another. In his preparation for A Woman in Charge, Bernstein reexamined everything pertinent written about and by Hillary Clinton. He interviewed some two hundred of her colleagues, friends, and enemies and was allowed unique access to the candid record of the 1992 presidential campaign kept by Hillary s best friend, Diane Blair. He has given us an audiobook that enables us, at last, to address the questions Americans are insistently even obsessively asking about Hillary Clinton: What is her character? What is her political philosophy? Who is she? What can we expect of her? As she decides to run for president, her husband now her valued aide, she has one more chance to fulfill her ambition for herself to change the world.
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Read an excerpt from A Woman in Charge
A Woman in Charge is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein's illuminating account of Hillary Rodham Clinton, revealing the complex of motivations and machinations behind her extraordinary life and career. Drawing on over 200 interviews with Clinton associates (both colleagues and adversaries), as well as major pieces written by and about the former First Lady, Bernstein has constructed an indelible portrait of perhaps the most polarizing figure in American politics, from her midwestern roots to her own presidential ambitions; but don't take our word for it--read an excerpt from the first chapter and decide for yourself.
Chapter One: Formation I adored [my father] when I was a little girl. I would eagerly watch for him from a window and run down the street to meet him on his way home after work. With his encouragement and coaching, I played baseball, football and basketball. I tried to bring home good grades to win his approval.
–Living History Hillary Rodham’s childhood was not the suburban idyll suggested by the shaded front porch and gently sloping lawn of what was once the family home at 235 Wisner Street in Park Ridge, Illinois. In this leafy environment of postwar promise and prosperity, the Rodhams were distinctly a family of odd ducks, isolated from their neighbors by the difficult character of her father, Hugh Rodham, a sour, unfulfilled man whose children suffered his relentless, demeaning sarcasm and misanthropic inclination, endured his embarrassing parsimony, and silently accepted his humiliation and verbal abuse of their mother. Yet as harsh, provocative, and abusive as Rodham was, he and his wife, the former Dorothy Howell, imparted to their children a pervasive sense of family and love for one another that in Hillary’s case is of singular importance. When Bill Clinton and Hillary honeymooned in Acapulco in 1975, her parents and her two brothers, Hughie (Hugh Jr.) and Tony, stayed in the same hotel as the bride and groom. Dorothy and Hugh Rodham, despite the debilitating pathology and undertow of tension in their marriage (discerned readily by visitors to their home), were assertive parents who, at mid-century, intended to convey to their children an inheritance secured by old-fashioned values and verities. They believed (and preached, in their different traditions) that with discipline, hard work, encouragement (often delivered in an unconventional manner), and enough education at home, school, and church, a child could pursue almost any dream. In the case of their only daughter, Hillary Diane, born October 26, 1947, this would pay enormous dividends, sending her into the world beyond Park Ridge with a steadiness and sense of purpose that eluded her two younger brothers. But it came at a price: Hugh imposed a patriarchal unpleasantness and ritual authoritarianism on his household, mitigated only by the distinctly modern notion that Hillary would not be limited in opportunity or skills by the fact that she was a girl. Hugh Rodham, the son of Welsh immigrants, was sullen, tight-fisted, contrarian, and given to exaggeration about his own accomplishments. Appearances of a sort were important to him: he always drove a new Lincoln or Cadillac. But he wouldn’t hesitate to spit tobacco juice through an open window. He chewed his cud habitually, voted a straight Republican ticket, and was infuriatingly slow to praise his children. "He was rougher than a corncob and gruff as could be," an acquaintance once said. Nurturance and praise were left largely to his wife, whose intelligence and abilities he mocked and whose gentler nature he often trampled. "Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the ass on your way out," he frequently said at the dinner table when she’d get angry and threaten to leave. She never left, but some friends and relatives were perplexed at Dorothy’s decision to stay married when her husband’s abuse seemed so unbearable. "She would never say, That’s it. I’ve had it," said Betsy Ebeling,* Hillary’s closest childhood friend, who witnessed many contentious scenes at the Rodham dinner table. Sometimes the doorknob remark would break the tension and everybody would laugh. But not always. By the time Hillary had reached her teens, her father seemed defined by his mean edges–he had almost no recognizable enthusiasms or pretense to lightness as he descended into continuous bullying, ill-humor, complaint, and dejection.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
A Woman in Charge is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein's illuminating account of Hillary Rodham Clinton, revealing the complex of motivations and machinations behind her extraordinary life and career. Drawing on over 200 interviews with Clinton associates (both colleagues and adversaries), as well as major pieces written by and about the former First Lady, Bernstein has constructed an indelible portrait of perhaps the most polarizing figure in American politics, from her midwestern roots to her own presidential ambitions; but don't take our word for it--read an excerpt from the first chapter and decide for yourself.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One: Formation I adored [my father] when I was a little girl. I would eagerly watch for him from a window and run down the street to meet him on his way home after work. With his encouragement and coaching, I played baseball, football and basketball. I tried to bring home good grades to win his approval.
–Living History Hillary Rodham’s childhood was not the suburban idyll suggested by the shaded front porch and gently sloping lawn of what was once the family home at 235 Wisner Street in Park Ridge, Illinois. In this leafy environment of postwar promise and prosperity, the Rodhams were distinctly a family of odd ducks, isolated from their neighbors by the difficult character of her father, Hugh Rodham, a sour, unfulfilled man whose children suffered his relentless, demeaning sarcasm and misanthropic inclination, endured his embarrassing parsimony, and silently accepted his humiliation and verbal abuse of their mother. Yet as harsh, provocative, and abusive as Rodham was, he and his wife, the former Dorothy Howell, imparted to their children a pervasive sense of family and love for one another that in Hillary’s case is of singular importance. When Bill Clinton and Hillary honeymooned in Acapulco in 1975, her parents and her two brothers, Hughie (Hugh Jr.) and Tony, stayed in the same hotel as the bride and groom. Dorothy and Hugh Rodham, despite the debilitating pathology and undertow of tension in their marriage (discerned readily by visitors to their home), were assertive parents who, at mid-century, intended to convey to their children an inheritance secured by old-fashioned values and verities. They believed (and preached, in their different traditions) that with discipline, hard work, encouragement (often delivered in an unconventional manner), and enough education at home, school, and church, a child could pursue almost any dream. In the case of their only daughter, Hillary Diane, born October 26, 1947, this would pay enormous dividends, sending her into the world beyond Park Ridge with a steadiness and sense of purpose that eluded her two younger brothers. But it came at a price: Hugh imposed a patriarchal unpleasantness and ritual authoritarianism on his household, mitigated only by the distinctly modern notion that Hillary would not be limited in opportunity or skills by the fact that she was a girl. Hugh Rodham, the son of Welsh immigrants, was sullen, tight-fisted, contrarian, and given to exaggeration about his own accomplishments. Appearances of a sort were important to him: he always drove a new Lincoln or Cadillac. But he wouldn’t hesitate to spit tobacco juice through an open window. He chewed his cud habitually, voted a straight Republican ticket, and was infuriatingly slow to praise his children. "He was rougher than a corncob and gruff as could be," an acquaintance once said. Nurturance and praise were left largely to his wife, whose intelligence and abilities he mocked and whose gentler nature he often trampled. "Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the ass on your way out," he frequently said at the dinner table when she’d get angry and threaten to leave. She never left, but some friends and relatives were perplexed at Dorothy’s decision to stay married when her husband’s abuse seemed so unbearable. "She would never say, That’s it. I’ve had it," said Betsy Ebeling,* Hillary’s closest childhood friend, who witnessed many contentious scenes at the Rodham dinner table. Sometimes the doorknob remark would break the tension and everybody would laugh. But not always. By the time Hillary had reached her teens, her father seemed defined by his mean edges–he had almost no recognizable enthusiasms or pretense to lightness as he descended into continuous bullying, ill-humor, complaint, and dejection.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Which Hillary Clinton will prevail in this sprawling, muddled biography? Is she a "messianic" idealist or a ruthless pragmatist given to negative ad campaigns and vilifying opponents? A liberal feminist firebrand or a closet traditionalist and Washington prayer-group fixture? A Lady Macbeth, a First Soul-mate, or a stand-by-your-man marital martyr? Bernstein (All the President's Men) gives us all these Hillary's, foggily uniting them by reference to her "extraordinary capability for change and evolutionary development." (Then again, the Senate candidate who "told voters largely what they wanted to hear" seems much the same species as the Wellesley student-body president who "was more interested in...achieving victory than in taking a philosophical position.") Bernstein's ill-balanced treatment puts "the Journey"-Hillary's mystic term for her politico-conjugal relationship with Bill Clinton-at the center of the story, particularly her dominant, sometimes disastrous role in Bill's scandal-plagued administration. Ever the investigative reporter, the author serves up chapters of eye-glazing Whitewater arcana and probes Hillary's emotional turmoil as she defends Bill from bimbo eruptions, but flits through her entire post-impeachment career as a high-profile senator and leader of the Democratic party in a scant 19 pages. Bernstein provides a densely detailed road-map of Hillary's life, but we get little sense of where the Journey has taken her. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
170 of 187 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You really get to know her,
By
This review is from: A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Hardcover)
Comprehensive, detailed and surprisingly easy to read, this biography of Hillary Clinton should be read by anyone who has a vote in any of the upcoming Democratic primaries and, if she wins that party's nomination, anyone planning to vote in 2008. Sure, many people claim to already know all they need to about Mrs. Clinton, but reading this book you really start to understand her. And whether you love her or hate her, your opinion just might be changed.
An amazingly interesting book, "A Woman in Charge" is divided into three sections. The first 70 pages cover Clinton's childhood in Chicago and college years. The next 100 recount her years in Arkansas. The remaining 350 focus on Hillary's experience as First Lady, with just a few devoted to her time as a senator. From a young child's love of earning Girl Scout merit badges, to a 14-year-old Goldwater Girl's trip to see Martin Luther King, to a modern senator's remarkably unique reason for voting for authorized force against Iraq (she said it would make "war less likely"), there's never a dull moment. And thanks to interviews with more than 200 Clinton associates and more than 500 footnotes, every sentence rings true. The book doesn't offer any juicy gossip, but does have lots of intimate behind-the-scenes detail. Hillary's first college boyfriend supplies Bernstein with the letters she wrote to him (what a jerk!), in which the 18-year-old freshman describes herself as "a progressive, an ethical Christian and a political activist" who is nevertheless "outrageous... as outrageous as a moral Methodist can get." Later on, Bernstein reveals that Bill Clinton asked Hillary to marry him many times before she finally said yes, and that once in Arkansas he told her he had fallen in love with another woman and wanted a divorce, which she refused. Toward the end of the book, the author recounts a moment during the peak of the Lewinsky crisis, when Stevie Wonder met Hillary at a White House dinner and insisted on taking her to a private room to perform a song he had written for her -- about forgiveness. What impressed me most about "A Woman in Charge" is how well it is written. Though every chapter is meticulously well documented, each explains its often-complex story in a clear and engaging style. You can picture yourself in the Yale dorm room when, in 1968, the politically active junior hears of Martin Luther King's assassination and pounds the wall, screaming "I can't stand it anymore! I can't take it!" And you can't help but cringe when you read of Hillary's first meeting with Virginia Cassidy Blythe Clinton Dwire -- Bill's mom -- after the charismatic woman with the "white-striped hair and fondness for fast men, fast horses, red lipstick and false eyelashes" had driven up to New Haven from Arkansas in 1972: "Virginia thought Hillary was a fright," Bernstein writes, "her hair badly cut (she had chopped it herself that semester, to save money), no makeup, and jeans, her preferred posture tending toward a hippie slouch." Equally compelling are the White House chapters, as Bernstein explains how Hillary's own overzealous promotion of her 1993 health-care plan ironically caused it to fail, but how her similar devotion to defending Bill against impeachment charges caused that fight to succeed. "A Woman in Charge" includes eight pages of black-and-white photos, mostly from Clinton's years as First Lady. Under the book jacket is a plain gray cover. All in all, what emerges is a sympathetic portrait of an extremely bright and talented American woman who has overcome a lot to get where she is -- but can nevertheless be cold, calculating and, worst of all, sometimes completely clueless on how to get things done. Bernstein shows how Hillary has learned from many of her mistakes and excelled in the Senate, but in the process has formed such a "protective shell" around her true character that she may, or may not, have what it takes to win the nomination, get elected, and be a great President.
79 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hillary,
By
This review is from: A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Hardcover)
Carl Bernstein, top-notch investigative reporter and prolific writers in our time, has tackled many tough subjects in his time, starting with bringing down an American president. His new subject, Senator Hillary Clinton, is yet another tough subject that he attempts, not to bring down, to bring "to light" in his new biography "A Woman in Charge". The overall result is entertaining and enlightening.
Need I bother to try to introduce one of the most controversial figures in American History, at least in the 20th and 21st centuries? Many people have their well-formed (if not well informed) opinions about Hillary, based on her history, her time in the White House as First Lady, and her life after. Certainly, this book is not going to sway those that support her, and those that hate her, into a new direction. I don't believe that Bernstein's intended audience was either group. I believe, with this book, he was aiming for those Americans (and there are many) who claim not to know much about the illusive senator from New York. And now that she's put her face out there as a possible candidate for election, I believe this population will benefit the most from reading this book. Bernstein's coverage of her life is complete, and focuses mainly on the time in the 90's as she became her most controversial. The Hillary that emerges from this book is certianly a complex woman, but one of strong opinion and certain mind. I was intrigued by her internal strength of character, as portrayed by Bernstein, after the entire Monica affair swept the White House. Of course, that may be the part of the book that most interests us, a greedy public hungry for the inside scoop of what really went on. You won't find that here, but you'll find a resolute Hillary, battered by the news, and yet surprisingly resilient. I can't imagine anyone doing anything else during that tumultuous time than what she did. In short, Bernstein's Hillary has added to my depth of knowledge of Hillary, and provided an slight insight into her persona. While I do believe it impossible for one person to truly grasp the content of anyone's character in just one book (look at how many books are written about Lincoln, still today!), I believe Bernstein got close to the real Hillary, or the Hillary that I prefer to see. I would recommend before you make any judgements on anyone's character, you spend a little time reading about that person before you make your informed opinion. A Woman in Charge would be a good addition to your bank of knowledge.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hillary I am Starting to Know You,
By
This review is from: A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Hardcover)
A Woman in Charge is a wonderfully written book. As a good journalist Carl Bernstein wrote a story that was absolutely fascinating about the most dynamic and important couple in recent US history. In reading this book I understood the true nature of the partnership between Hillary and Bill. I also understood at least from Bernstein's point of view how the relations in a marriage can shape history. Unfortunately because the book does stops really with the White House years we do not get his assessment of how Hillary has changed. I read this book in the hope it would help me make up my mind on who to vote for and because it did not cover the Senate years it did not help.
There are several fascinating insights in the book. The first for me was how even early on Hillary had the ability to attract people to her. In high school and college and finally law school she clearly stood out as an extraordinary person. People were drawn to her because of her intellect and ability to get things done. Second as she grew she sincerely felt herself to be a partner in a venture whether in Arkansas or in Washington. Bill was the front man and the dreamer. She was behind the scene with the ability to get things done. She was a person who saw a goal, was convinced she knew how to achieve it and then would stop at nothing to achieve it. In short she was a dangerous person, not unlike our current president. Third and more hopeful she seems to have the ability to learn from her mistakes and to grow. It is a shame that Bernstein does not spend more time on her Senate career. The most interesting point was the dynamics between Bill and Hllary. I got the feeling that Bill is a force of nature. Brillant but undisciplined but totally charming. HIllary could not control him but worked at it never endingly and accepted her role. He also was attached to her in an interesting way that is hard to understand. They really were joined together and were not really independent. The last point is the problem with books that are based upon interviews. It is so difficult to know how credible the book is when you do not know all the sources. In summary it is a great story about a remarkable woman. It is a well done effort and very enjoyable.
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