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A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President Audiobook – Unabridged

Jeffrey Toobin (Author), Kevin Stillwell (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)

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In A Vast Conspiracy, the best-selling author of The Run of His Life casts an insightful, unbiased eye over the most extraordinary public saga of our time - the Clinton sex scandals. A superlative journalist known for the skillfulness of his investigating and the power of his writing, Jeffrey Toobin tells the unlikely story of the events that began over doughnuts in a Little Rock hotel and ended on the floor of the United States Senate, with only the second vote on presidential removal in American history. This is an entirely fresh look at the scandal that very nearly brought down a president.

Packed with news-making disclosures and secret documents published here for the first time, Toobin unravels the three strands of a national scandal - those leading from Paula Jones, Kenneth Starr, and Monica Lewinsky - that created a legal, personal, and political disaster for Bill Clinton. A Vast Conspiracy is written with the narrative drive of a sensational (if improbable) legal thriller, and Toobin brilliantly explores the high principle and low comedy that were the hallmarks of the story. From Tripp to Goldberg, Isikoff to Hyde, the complex and tangled motivations behind the scandal are laid bare.

While misguided, outlandish behavior was played out at the very highest level, Toobin analyzes the facts and the key figures with a level of dignity and insight that this story has not yet received. The Clinton scandals will shape forever how we think about the signature issues of our day - sex and sexual harassment, privacy and perjury, civil rights, and, yes, cigars. Toobin's book will shape forever how we think about the Clinton scandals.

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Product details

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 17 hours and 53 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Audible Studios
Audible.com Release Date: March 28, 2017
Whispersync for Voice: Ready
Language: English
ASIN: B06X1BSHWK
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
- #7 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga > Erotica
- #799 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > History
- #6089 in Books > History

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Top customer reviews

Who Knew?

ByGma Saraon October 28, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Good writing here makes for good reading. Moreover, good thinking manages to organize all the bits and pieces and themes and personalities that were polluting the political environment back then and make a relatively straightforward, if not exactly simple, story of what really was a conspiracy, while leaving no doubt that it was prompted and sustained in part by Clinton's own narcissism. I was there, and I paid attention, and yet this book is a great relief, allowing me finally to understand what was happening. It is also surprisingly amusing, occasionally downright risible, bringing my constant subliminal chuckle to a full belly laugh. In part, I suppose, this was because at the time I found Starr et al so despicable and the process so perverted that I couldn't see the humor. More importantly, the humor lies in the detail and enlightenment Toobin adds. Without disregarding what we all saw in/on the news, he gives it short shrift in favor of inside information, effectively using his ability to flesh out players' characters, histories, motives and interrelationships. I am eager to forget enough of it that I can read it again! In fact, I may not even wait.

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Fascinating Story of a Rush to Impeachment

ByVirginia G . Pontiouson September 18, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Precision in reporting - that's the sign of a Jeffrey Toobin book about something that really happened. Add analysis and common sense, and you have this story of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal that rocked Clinton's presidency. Compelling and level-headed discussion of motives and consequences. A really good read.

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Fascinating, well-written

Byavid readeron August 22, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Even all these years later, the Clinton-Whitewater-Lewinsky saga is compelling reading, for so many reasons. While it is clear that Toobin feels that Clinton was attacked and judged far too harshly for the particular "crime" he committed by trysting with Monica Lewinsky, neither does Clinton's repeated boorish behavior get him (Clinton) off the hook with the author. Many of the multitude of books on the subject seem to present either a viciously anti-Clinton picture, or a total apology for Clinton's behavior, but this one manages to toe the middle line pretty well. Toobin is above all an excellent writer, and the story is still so inherently fascinating that it's difficult to put this one down.

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right wing fanatic but not very smart. Jeffrey Toobin writes with authority and great prose

ByLucy Stoneon April 29, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Fascinating look inside what really happened with the Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky & the real right wing conspiracy- Ken Starr was not only incompetent, right wing fanatic but not very smart. Jeffrey Toobin writes with authority and great prose.

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Heroic battle with the forces of partisaniship.

ByAmazon Customeron June 21, 2000

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Toobin brings three invaluable gifts to this work. His writing is lucid, his narartives are engaging and his politics are (as much as humanly possible) put aside in favor of a clear recitation of the facts. He is not without a thesis, however. He is determined to bring the reader to the conclusion that the American judicial system has co-opted the political system; and both of them have been diminished by that fact. While his arguments are powerful, they are not the compelling component of this book, and I cannot bring myself to completely accept his conclusions.
However, as historians turn back to examine these incidents in the future (I believe it will be of far less interest than we'd like to think) Toobin's book will provide an excellent, mostly dispassionate recital of those elements in these events that have a basis in verifiable fact. He avoids rumor, innuendo and propoganda as much as any person intimately invovled with the reporting of the case could possibly manage. He spares no one from any side of the battle (including, but not limited to the fourth estate). He turns a bright light on the actions of all the players but refuses to indulge in a plethora of psycho-babble to analyze motives, intents or feelings. This is a welcome relief for a reader who wants to separate the muddy swirl of politcal spin from the factual events, in an understandable chronicle.
Partisanship is, for many of us, as essential as breathing. We prefer to indulge in a conspiracy of agreement, reading only those who verify our preconceived beliefs and rejecting utterly anyone who challenges them. Toobin must be read with the understanding he will not pander to your most cherished wishes about this Presidency, whatever they may be. That alone makes this book worth reading, re-reading and retaining for the future.

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Interesting, but too long

ByChristopher Farrellon October 23, 2001

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I started out enjoying this book. While not denying a modest democratic slant (an opinion that is at least borne out by the facts), it's still a very well-balanced account of all the various Clinton "scandals" and the legal wrangling that surrounded them. The characters involved in the whole episode are well-presented and the story well-told. There certainly is a comic element, as most of the characters - up to and including the President - are utterly hopeless in one way or another and Toobin rather mercilessly runs them down for it.
That said, I just simply lost steam around page 200. The problem is just that the entire story is so utterly banal and sordid. Most of Clinton's adversaries are utterly beyond social redemption. There are relatively few meaningful conclusions that take more than a few incidents and a couple pages to state (one interesting episode is a forshadowing of the Supreme Court's involvement in the 2000 elections, the appellate court that ruled on whether or not a sitting President could be sued split along party lines - with the Republicans voting for and Democrats against, in direct opposition to their traditional positions). After reading some 25 pages of descriptions of Linda Tripp and her taping of the remarkably hopeless Monica Lewinsky, one starts to lose their stomach for that sort of thing.
At any rate, this is an important episode which deserves an honest, straightforward treatment. The only real flaw in this book is that it really is about twice as long as it should be. Still, if you can deal with that, it is recommended.