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Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President
Of the original Gilded Age, historian Richard Hofstadter “There is no other period in the nation’s history when politics seems so completely dwarfed by economic changes, none in which the life of the country rests so completely in the hands of the industrial entrepreneur.” The era of William Jefferson Clinton’s ascent to the presidency was strikingly similar—nothing less, Clinton himself said, than “a paradigm shift . . . from the industrial age to an information-technology age, from the Cold War to a global society.” How Bill Clinton met the challenges of this new Gilded Age is the subject of Patrick J. Maney’s an in-depth perspective on the 42nd president of the United States and the transformative era over which he presided.
Bill New Gilded Age President goes beyond personality and politics to examine the critical issues of the economic and fiscal policy, business and financial deregulation, healthcare and welfare reform, and foreign affairs in a post-Cold War world. But at its heart is Bill Clinton in all his the first baby boomer to reach the White House; the “natural”—the most gifted politician of his generation, but one with an inexplicably careless and self-destructive streak; the “Comeback Kid,” repeatedly overcoming long odds; the survivor, frequently down but never out; and, with Hillary Rodham Clinton, part of the most controversial First Couple since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Maney’s book is, in sum, the most succinct and up-to-date study of the Clinton presidency, invaluable not merely for understanding a transformative era in American history, but presidential, national, and global politics today.
Bill New Gilded Age President goes beyond personality and politics to examine the critical issues of the economic and fiscal policy, business and financial deregulation, healthcare and welfare reform, and foreign affairs in a post-Cold War world. But at its heart is Bill Clinton in all his the first baby boomer to reach the White House; the “natural”—the most gifted politician of his generation, but one with an inexplicably careless and self-destructive streak; the “Comeback Kid,” repeatedly overcoming long odds; the survivor, frequently down but never out; and, with Hillary Rodham Clinton, part of the most controversial First Couple since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Maney’s book is, in sum, the most succinct and up-to-date study of the Clinton presidency, invaluable not merely for understanding a transformative era in American history, but presidential, national, and global politics today.
- GenresBiographyPresidents
344 pages, Hardcover
Published February 15, 2016
About the author
Patrick J. Maney
3 books1 followerPatrick Maney is professor of history at Boston College.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 11, 2019
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2019...
One of the most recent biographies of Clinton is Patrick Maney’s “Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President” which was published in 2016. Maney is a history professor at Boston College and the author of biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Robert La Follette Jr. (a US Senator and an architect of FDR’s New Deal).
Relatively short for a presidential biography, this book manages to cover impressive ground in just 273 pages. But while it reviews Clinton’s full life up through the early years of his retirement, its primary focus is clearly on his presidency.
Given the speed at which he covers Clinton’s early years, Maney does a surprisingly good job setting the stage for his subject’s national political career. But since fewer than fifty pages sweep Clinton from birth to the White House, some readers will leave this section of the book with more questions than answers.
The author’s style is straightforward and clear, but with a slightly sterile quality. And despite Clinton’s tendency to turn every observer into either fan or critic, Maney approaches his task with judicious balance. But this book is far more a political than a personal biography. And when it periodically directs its focus toward the legislative or economic backdrop of the 1990s – and away from Clinton – it resembles a history book more than a biography.
Clinton’s presidency consumes nearly 80% of the book and although these eight chapters are arranged more or less chronologically, individual chapters often focus on specific topics rather than periods of time. And within a particular chapter the narrative can bounce around the timeline significantly.
The process of Clinton selecting his staff and Cabinet is quite interesting and several aspects of his presidency receive significant, and often, insightful attention. Clinton’s infamous health care task force, various foreign policy challenges, and efforts to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act all receive noteworthy coverage. Maney’s review of Clinton’s post-presidency is solid but feels needlessly frenetic.
Maney is extremely comfortable with (and adept at) exploring and analyzing policy issues. But this occasionally pushes Clinton into the shadows and allows the discussion to turn a bit “wonky.” And, due to the book’s topical approach, the Independent Counsel’s investigation and Clinton’s impeachment seem oddly isolated from the remainder of his presidency.
Finally, beyond the brief discussion of his subject’s childhood, Maney never really humanizes his subject. The reader never gets a keen sense of Clinton personally and could be forgiven for not realizing he has a daughter. And because readers never see the world through Clinton’s eyes or from his perspective it is never entirely clear what makes him “tick” or why.
Overall, Patrick Maney’s “Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President” is a good political biography of Clinton…but only a fair personal biography. It proves to be well-written and interesting history, but is not particularly colorful or revealing as a biography. But its modest size and lack of tedious detail makes it potentially useful as an efficient review of Clinton’s life with a distinct emphasis on his presidency.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
One of the most recent biographies of Clinton is Patrick Maney’s “Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President” which was published in 2016. Maney is a history professor at Boston College and the author of biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Robert La Follette Jr. (a US Senator and an architect of FDR’s New Deal).
Relatively short for a presidential biography, this book manages to cover impressive ground in just 273 pages. But while it reviews Clinton’s full life up through the early years of his retirement, its primary focus is clearly on his presidency.
Given the speed at which he covers Clinton’s early years, Maney does a surprisingly good job setting the stage for his subject’s national political career. But since fewer than fifty pages sweep Clinton from birth to the White House, some readers will leave this section of the book with more questions than answers.
The author’s style is straightforward and clear, but with a slightly sterile quality. And despite Clinton’s tendency to turn every observer into either fan or critic, Maney approaches his task with judicious balance. But this book is far more a political than a personal biography. And when it periodically directs its focus toward the legislative or economic backdrop of the 1990s – and away from Clinton – it resembles a history book more than a biography.
Clinton’s presidency consumes nearly 80% of the book and although these eight chapters are arranged more or less chronologically, individual chapters often focus on specific topics rather than periods of time. And within a particular chapter the narrative can bounce around the timeline significantly.
The process of Clinton selecting his staff and Cabinet is quite interesting and several aspects of his presidency receive significant, and often, insightful attention. Clinton’s infamous health care task force, various foreign policy challenges, and efforts to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act all receive noteworthy coverage. Maney’s review of Clinton’s post-presidency is solid but feels needlessly frenetic.
Maney is extremely comfortable with (and adept at) exploring and analyzing policy issues. But this occasionally pushes Clinton into the shadows and allows the discussion to turn a bit “wonky.” And, due to the book’s topical approach, the Independent Counsel’s investigation and Clinton’s impeachment seem oddly isolated from the remainder of his presidency.
Finally, beyond the brief discussion of his subject’s childhood, Maney never really humanizes his subject. The reader never gets a keen sense of Clinton personally and could be forgiven for not realizing he has a daughter. And because readers never see the world through Clinton’s eyes or from his perspective it is never entirely clear what makes him “tick” or why.
Overall, Patrick Maney’s “Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President” is a good political biography of Clinton…but only a fair personal biography. It proves to be well-written and interesting history, but is not particularly colorful or revealing as a biography. But its modest size and lack of tedious detail makes it potentially useful as an efficient review of Clinton’s life with a distinct emphasis on his presidency.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
March 15, 2023
A very good overview of Clinton's presidency. Maney covers a lot of ground in this book but rarely dips into much depth. He successfully covers Clinton's successes like NAFTA and the Dayton accords to end the Bosnian conflict and his failures such as health care reform and attempt to achieve an Israeli/Palestinian agreement late in his term as well as his missed opportunities such as a chance to regulate financial derivatives. An excellent place to start learning about Clinton but I'd really like a more indepth examination of his administration.
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May 18, 2017This was an interesting read if you wanted to get a general overview of late 20th Century history during the Clinton Era. But it failed to live up to its stated purpose, that Clinton's presidency was overshadowed but larger events and trends such as globalization, the telecommunications and dot-com revolutions, and such. He does provide a useful reminder about how, as a "New Democrat," he opted for a fairly conservative economic agenda that included lots of deregulation of vital sectors of the national economy by the federal government. I would have enjoyed the book more if the author had offered more analysis about the legacy impact of his policies on the world we live in.
February 1, 2024
A fascinating, but somewhat impersonal biography-Maney's analysis of Clinton is a very fascinating look at an "average" President, one that can survive to fight another day but never quite rise to greatness. The rage Clinton feels when finding out that's what a presidential poll ranked him as is illuminating-he won re-election (albeit not with the popular mandate he hoped for and that his erstwhile companion Dick Morris said he'd win by), but never quite pulled off the big score, did the thing that would define his legacy. Instead, like many Gilded Age Presidents, he is defined by his relationship with others, his maintenance of the executive in a time where the tides of history were washing over it.
I think the most interesting bit of the book that Maney hits on is that Clinton isn't really as much of a neoliberal at heart as he is often portrayed-oftentimes biographers and analysts see him as a hardcore, centrist conservative in the vein of Carter, a committed ideologue to the "third way." To an extent this is true-Clinton was an ardent member of the DLC and committed to welfare reform, but when you look into many of his proposals and the actual personal convictions that underpin much of what he does, you see it often comes more from Clinton's "survival instincts," his need to live to fight another day, than out of a sincere commitment to the almighty dollar over humanity or whatever. Clinton is in a sense, personally, a moderate liberal who is totally painted into a corner by the "Roaring Nineties" where people wanted the era of big government to be over, and so he adapted in order to keep fighting to live another day. It's an interesting portrayal of the president that isn't often shown, which I found rather interesting and illuminating, and a good contrast to later emulators of Clinton. Bill's handwringing over welfare and his push for gay service in the military show that he isn't a real neoliberal nightmare-he is more of a chameleon who thought he was better than nothing. It's fascinating to read about a guy throwing away so many of his ideals.
The book's biggest limitation (aside from its rather impersonal look at Bill and Hillary, though that is somewhat expected of its scope and I don't ding it that much), is its handling of the Lewinsky affair. It seems to avert at times really discussing it for what it was, a major abuse of power over a woman, and doesn't really delve into how Lewinsky was treated throughout the whole business. Perhaps that's just an issue of its scope (it does attempt to be very Bill-centric), but considering how our culture continuously fails to reckon with the horror of how Lewinsky was treated by the President, the Congress, and our Media, it felt like a failing.
Overall though, a very solid book that I found endlessly illuminating about how the White House actually worked, and what it took to remain in power as a Democrat in the Sixth Party System. I'd recommend it to anybody easily, if they want to find out what the reality of liberal governance in our new Gilded Age is.
I think the most interesting bit of the book that Maney hits on is that Clinton isn't really as much of a neoliberal at heart as he is often portrayed-oftentimes biographers and analysts see him as a hardcore, centrist conservative in the vein of Carter, a committed ideologue to the "third way." To an extent this is true-Clinton was an ardent member of the DLC and committed to welfare reform, but when you look into many of his proposals and the actual personal convictions that underpin much of what he does, you see it often comes more from Clinton's "survival instincts," his need to live to fight another day, than out of a sincere commitment to the almighty dollar over humanity or whatever. Clinton is in a sense, personally, a moderate liberal who is totally painted into a corner by the "Roaring Nineties" where people wanted the era of big government to be over, and so he adapted in order to keep fighting to live another day. It's an interesting portrayal of the president that isn't often shown, which I found rather interesting and illuminating, and a good contrast to later emulators of Clinton. Bill's handwringing over welfare and his push for gay service in the military show that he isn't a real neoliberal nightmare-he is more of a chameleon who thought he was better than nothing. It's fascinating to read about a guy throwing away so many of his ideals.
The book's biggest limitation (aside from its rather impersonal look at Bill and Hillary, though that is somewhat expected of its scope and I don't ding it that much), is its handling of the Lewinsky affair. It seems to avert at times really discussing it for what it was, a major abuse of power over a woman, and doesn't really delve into how Lewinsky was treated throughout the whole business. Perhaps that's just an issue of its scope (it does attempt to be very Bill-centric), but considering how our culture continuously fails to reckon with the horror of how Lewinsky was treated by the President, the Congress, and our Media, it felt like a failing.
Overall though, a very solid book that I found endlessly illuminating about how the White House actually worked, and what it took to remain in power as a Democrat in the Sixth Party System. I'd recommend it to anybody easily, if they want to find out what the reality of liberal governance in our new Gilded Age is.
March 20, 2017
A critical, but, generally favorable, view of the 42nd president.
July 26, 2020
This was really very good - pretty balanced
July 5, 2025
Operation Read Every President's Biography #42
April 10, 2026
Very surface-level biography - would need to be 3-4 times longer to achieve the depth of the great biographies of other contemporary presidents.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews