42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton

by Michael Nelson (Editor), Barbara A. Perry (Editor), Russell L. Riley (Editor)

This book uses hundreds of hours of newly opened interviews and other sources to illuminate the life and times of the nation’s forty-second president, Bill Clinton. Combining the authoritative perspective of these inside accounts with the analytic powers of some of America’s most distinguished presidential scholars, the essays assembled here offer a major advance in our collective understanding of the Clinton White House. Included are path-breaking chapters on the major domestic and foreign policy initiatives of the Clinton years, as well as objective discussions of political success and failure. 42 is the first book to make extensive use of previously closed interviews collected for the Clinton Presidential History Project, conducted by the Presidential Oral History Program of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. These interviews, recorded by teams of scholars working under a veil of strict confidentiality, explored officials’ memories of their service with President Clinton and their careers prior to joining the administration. Interviewees also offered political and leadership lessons they had gleaned as eyewitnesses to and shapers of history. Their spoken recollections provide invaluable detail about the inner history of the presidency in an age when personal diaries and discursive letters are seldom written. The authors producing this volume had first access to more than fifty of these cleared interviews, including sessions with White House chiefs of staff Mack McLarty and Leon Panetta, Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, National Security Advisors Anthony Lake and Sandy Berger, and a host of political advisors who guided Clinton into the White House and helped keep him there. This book thus provides a multidimensional portrait of Bill Clinton's administration, drawing largely on the observations of those who knew it best.

Genres: Politics

344 pages, Paperback

Published July 14, 2016

About the author

Michael Nelson is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College. He has published multiple books, the most recent of which is Resilient America: Electing Nixon, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government (2014). Other recent books are The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776–2014, with Sidney Milkis (2015); The Presidency and the Political System, 10th ed. (2014); and The Elections of 2012 (2013). He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Politics and Political Science Quarterly and in periodicals such as Virginia Quarterly Review, the Claremont Review of Books, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Although most of his articles have been about American politics and government, he also has written about C. S. Lewis, Frank Sinatra, Charles Dickens, Garrison Keillor, football, and baseball. More than 50 of these articles have been reprinted in anthologies of political science, history, and English composition. He is editor of the American Presidential Elections book series for the University Press of Kansas and is currently writing a book about the 1992 election.

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

Reviews

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an exhaustive study of the Clinton years, comprised of interviews with those either in or close to or extremely knowledgable about the administration. A scholarly look at one of the most popular Presidents in recent history. Highly recommended for those with an interest in politics. As the book states:

"42 offers scholarly analysis of the many oral history interviews that were conducted and that, taken together, expand our understanding of the Clinton presidency and the final decade of the second millennium."

The contents are as follows:

Foreword Elaine Kamarck
Preface Michael Nelson, Barbara A. Perry, and Russell L. Riley
Bill Clinton’s Road to the White House Introduction: History and Bill Clinton Russell L. Riley
Part I POLITICS
1. Redividing Government: National Elections in the Clinton Years and Beyond Michael Nelson
2. Triangulation: Position and Leadership in Clinton’s Domestic Policy Bruce F. Nesmith and Paul J. Quirk
Part II DOMESTIC AND ECONOMIC POLICY
3. Compromise and Confrontation: Clinton’s Evolving Relationship with Congress Sean M. Theriault, Patrick T. Hickey, and Megan Moeller
4. Root Canal Politics: Economic Policy Making in the New Administration Brendan J. Doherty
5. The Broken Places: The Clinton Impeachment and American Politics Andrew Rudalevige
6. Clinton and Welfare Reform: An Oral History Michael Nelson
7. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Recasting the Role of First Lady Barbara A. Perry
Part III FOREIGN POLICY
8. The Reluctant Grand Strategist at War: Diplomacy and Force in Bosnia and Kosovo
9. Peacemaker’s Progress: Bill Clinton, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East Robert A. Strong Conclusion: Clinton’s Legacy for Politics and Government Sidney M. Milkis
Appendix 1: Interviewees for the William J. Clinton Presidential History Project
Appendix 2: Interviewers for the William J. Clinton Presidential History Project
Notes
List of Contributors
Index

Thank you to Netgalley and Cornell University Press for an advance copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

[AJourneyWithoutMap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over a year and half ago, I read 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush which was a thoughtful and affectionate pen-picture of the life and leadership of the 41st President, George H.W. Bush, by his son and the 43rd President, George W. Bush. When I saw 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton edited by Michael Nelson, Barbara A. Perry and Russell L. Riley on offer on NetGalley, I was instinctively drawn to it, and discovered for myself a scholarly and objective assessment of Bill Clinton’s presidency through a collection of essays written by scholars and policymakers. As I delved into it, it also provides a great escape from the flood of lopsided books on the two Presidential candidates that have rained upon us.

Published by Cornell University Press, 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton is a cooperative effort of the Miller Center of the University of Virginia and the Clinton Foundation which offers scholarly analysis of the Clinton presidency but does not hesitate to mention his moral failures and asserted that his second term in office was bogged down by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Carefully grouped into three parts consisting of nine incisive chapters, the first part is entitled Politics, the second part deals with domestic and economic policy of the Clinton era while the last part concentrated on his foreign policy which was a huge success.

Sidney M. Milkis of the University of Virginia in his concluding essay remarked that “both his successes and failures were highly consequential.” However, when it comes to interpretation of Clinton’s legacy for American politics and government, it is difficult to reach a consensus. One interesting chapter in the book written by Barbara A. Perry of Miller Center, University of Virginia, concerns Clinton’s wife Hillary Rodham Clinton and mentioned how she in the year following the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords visited Bosnia in 1996 and exaggerated the danger she faced. But to her credit, Hillary has been the eyes and ears of her husband as she travelled and interacted a lot with people. All in all, 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton is incisive and well-researched. It is a must-read book if you want an objective and scholarly assessment of an important chapter in American history.