American Evita: Hillary Clinton's Path to Power – The New York Times Bestselling Biography of Scandal and Ambition

by Christopher Andersen

From the author of The Day Diana Died and The Day John Died comes this riveting New York Times bestseller that offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most fascinating, and controversial, women in American political history—Hillary Clinton.

From the beginning, Hilary Rodham Clinton has drawn inevitable comparisons to Argentina's legendary Eva Perón. Sex, power, money, lies, scandal, tragedy, and betrayal defined the lives of both women. Yet most of what we know about Hillary is seen in the context of her tumultuous marriage to the 42nd President.

In the style of his #l New York Times bestsellers The Day Diana Died and The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen draws on important sources to paint a startling portrait of America's most controversial woman—the first woman ever considered a serious contender for the presidency. Among the revelations:


How U.S. history has been shaped by the arrangement between Hillary and Bill known as "The Plan." Important new details about the role Hillary played in the scandalous eleventh hour pardons of armed radicals, drug dealers, tax cheats, embezzlers, money launderers and more. How the outgoing First Lady registered like a bride at a gift store and left the White House with $400,000 worth of "gifts" belonging to the American people. How JFK Jr. almost thwarted her Senate plans. New details about Hillary's relationship with the late Vince Foster. How Hillary has coped with Bill's hundreds of affairs, and the new women in her husband's life. What Martha Stewart did for Hillary, and how Hillary repaid her.
Whatever the ultimate judgment of history, the ongoing saga of Hillary Clinton's inexorable rise to power continues to stir passions, and to make her the American Evita.

Genres: Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Womens

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2004

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Christopher Peter Andersen is an American journalist and the author of 32 books, including many bestsellers. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Andersen joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time Incorporated's People Magazine. He has also written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Life, and Vanity Fair.

While his early nonfiction books veered from psychology (The Name Game) to true crime (The Serpent's Tooth) to art collecting ('The Best of Everything', with former Sotheby's chairman John Marion), he is best known for his controversial biographies. Between 1991 and 2011, he published 14 New York Times bestselling biographies. Andersen wrote Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones in July 2012. The book quickly became Andersen's 15th New York Times bestseller.

Reviews

[Lisa Pletz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Clinton fan, this book was tough to take. If half of the things that the author attributes to her are true, I'm disgusted. I realize that if she were a man, the foul language and convoluted machinations to achieve high office and extraordinary power would not be considered unusual. However, she's not. Another issue that bothers me is that she has continued what appears to be a marriage of convenience solely to achieve high political office, and tolerated the highly publicized sexual philanderings of her husband to do so. Why allow the humiliation? I'm not sure whether or not the personal lives of our leaders is fair game for deciding if they are capable of governing well, but perhaps personal judgment is a good indicator of professional judgment.

[Dru · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a government minor in my college years, I've read a lot about politicans. Some of them scary, some of them fascinating, some of them boring, some of them inspiring. But this particular woman... she claims to be a feminist. She's anything but.

This book, after reading others as well, just turned me off from her completely. I've followed her career, but there was always something "off" about her. Knowing how she dealt with different situations concering Bill and her own reputation is just appalling, and to think I've ever supported her.

Yes, I would love to see a woman take the office someday, but I rather wait if she's the only one in the running.

Note to whoever reads this book: be sure to read other perspectives, not just one-sided for there are biases. Becoming knowledgable is always a good thing, although you might not like what you read. Afterall it's politics. You gotta do whatever it takes to get to the top, right?

[Pat Empson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be recommended reading for anyone thinking about voting for Hillary Clinton for president. It reveals the lies, deviousness and nastiness of someone who aspires to be our country's leader. We do not need someone like this in control of our future. Her past association with the PLO has been swept under the rug. It is to the point where you cannot believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She and her philandering husband are self-serving at the expense of everyone they come in contact with.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very important read for anyone who has read Hillary Clinton's autobiography. Obviously her autobiography is very biased towards her; this book is almost a little too biased against her, but it provides a good counterbalance, refuting some of her own facts and stories. Although this book cannot be taken alone and must be considered along with other facts about Mrs. Clinton, it provides quite a bit of food for thought about a woman who could be our next president.

[Kar Wai Ng · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is so bad and sexist i want to puke in my mouth. if hillary clinton were a man, would half the stuff in the book still stand? on a scale of 1 to 5, my rating is #nope

[Kellie Elmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy seeing inside the real world of others. My intrigue with Hilary Clinton made this a hands down, must read for me. I loved the tales she shares about the Clinton family's arrival at the White House and I literally laughed out loud. Yes...laughter, from a book with the sharp edged Hilary Clinton! Great read!

[Susan Y, · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very mean spirited expose. Reviews of it challenge its objectivity. The comparison to Eva Peron is inaccurate.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hillary is bad... I get it. She rode her husband's coattails... I get it.

Don't read this book if you are a Hillary fan. Don't read this book if you hate Hillary, because then you'll be more upset when she becomes president.

Interesting parts of this book include her love for Palestinians and her strong dislike of Jews and Israel. Also, it is interesting to see how she has enabled Bill's womanizing.

[K.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a hard choice, but I decided to read American Evita instead of Hillary Clinton's most, recent ghost written, self promoting tripe.

There may have been a time when I felt kind of shallow because I was so repulsed by Ms. Rodham's physical appearance. Now I feel less guilty because I can confirmed that, like the picture of Dorian Gray, her soul is far more hideous than her face.

[Connie Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow! i knew she was scheming, hard-nosed and driven. i just didn't realize to what extent. I knew he was a sex-driven, arrogant jerk. Again, I didn't fully understand to what extent....how dishonest and self-centered they really are.

[Lizmarie Pistachio · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I have read is very disappointing, not with the book but with her. I had high regard, but now I'm at a loss. I believe none of what I hear, none of what I read and half of what I see. However this has taken me for a loop.

[Imogene (Gene) · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can't make up your mind about who you want to run for President, read this.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. Her need for power, the reason why she married and put up with her womanizing husband, and her at all cost ambition is explained in this book. Truly an amazing book.

[Sumali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shocking & detailed. Makes me think twice about ever blindly voting.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is quite interesting to read all the way through this book about Hilary Clinton's life as a woman and as her romantic life with other guys and Bill Clinton, and specially to know the kind of girl she was during her time in the university. She did not like make up, or shaving her legs; to read that is kind of funny, since she is a woman of so much power. As I went to the lecture I discover the kind of man the book describes about Bill Clinton. , it is curious to read he was a womanizer, I did not know he had that kind of behavior before of what happen, and Hillary had to deal with that a lot. I am excited to read about the time when she had her daughter, if the book talks about it, I want to know how much did her change with that new time in her life.
I still do not find the part where she became de north american Evita... at the end of the book is where the author makes the similarities between Eva Perón and Hillary.
Having read this book, I did see a very different face on what I thought of the Clinton family. For me, Hillary Clinton has long represented the ideal woman to be the first president of the United States, although I feel the same, but with some questions about the behavior as a woman she has.

It is atonishing to see how people set goals and do everything possible and impossible to achieve what they have proposed. I eventually concluded that it has been a strategy of Mrs. Hillary stay married to former President Clinton, after all the things he has done to her as his wife.

[Debbie Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is biased toward Bill and Hillary as despicable human beings. Maybe they are. There is very little about their accomplishments and more about their flaws, cheating and manipulative behaviors, including every torrid affair in detail. If you believe everything written here, you will think the worst of them as humans, politicians and leaders. I was disgusted with both of them and will not likely read any more books by this author as I don't care for this style.

[Patty Abrams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very anti-Hillary and anti-Bill which was fine with me because I don't care for either person but was interested in their lives. I enjoyed that it went back to their childhoods and all the way up to Hillary Clinton becoming a New York senator. I learned a lot.

[Kneega]

not too far into it yet, but what I have read shows her lust for power/control and her "the ends justifies the means" attitude to attain it.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the dirt on Hillary in one handy dandy volume.

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far, it seems to be a rather critical look at Hillary Clinton's rise to the top.

[Regina Fotovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting.....

[Dan Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about a really scary lady.

[Karen Bruechle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only 25% of this book is true, then she is a very scary person.

[Renato Renato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mostly an interesting book. Very well written. It brings background and behind the scenes information about Hillary and Bill's joint rise to power. It is fascinating how they, specially Hillary, sought, since an early age, to achieve the pinacle of American politics and how far they managed to go. Having read the book in 2018 it is difficult now to imagine that, at 73 years old, Hillary would have the strengh to go for a last try to recapture the white house for the Clintons in 2020. Even though, the book shows that this has been her dream and she made literally everything that was in her reach to make it a reality.
The book has also its tabloid-like moments when it goes into details of Bill's sex addiction and time and again comments about the hundreds of women with whom he had betrayed Hillary long before and also after the famous Monica Lewinsky case that ultimately led to his impeachment and almost ruined Clinton's future.

[Alistair Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid that I didn't like this book or the authors style. The Clintons may not be pleasant characters but this is an unrelenting hatchet job criticising her from her appearance to not leaving a big enough tip after a meal through her parenting skills and covering up her husbands affairs. As a couple they are presented as greedy, corrupt, venal and arrogant. Hillary's ambition to be President is presented as a vice and the author is gleeful in presenting inconsistencies, e.g running in New York he quotes a "friend" who says Hillary previously said she was a Chicago Cubs fan so wearing a Yankees cap is hypocritical, this is the standard of most of the book albeit it is apparant that the Clintons provide plenty of material to draw on.
This book has a distinct anti Clinton bias and is not recommended

[Anita R. Pease · Rating 4 out of 5]

everyone should read to find the real Hillary.

I can say after reading this very detailed book. Hillary and Bill are exposed for what they are. Bad people out for themselves. I can find not one thing to say about her that’s nice or good. Not one. I’m her age. Why does anyone like her? How? Or are they afraid? They should be. I read this book to see if maybe I miss judged her all these years. Nope. She’s even worse.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author spends a lot of time highlighting certain things while nearly ignoring other ideas.

We learn a lot about Bill Clinton’s accusers. We learn little about Hillary’s upbringing, motivations, hopes, fears, or beliefs.

The goal of the book seems to be to make people like Hillary less.

Regardless of opinion about the subject, the book is well written.

[Jason Hankins · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay; though, as with all books of this type, I’d take it with a grain of salt.

[Katie Larlee-scully · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening. Scary lady.

[Peter Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched, insightful study of Hillary Clinton that has helped me to put 30 years of US Presidential politics into context.