A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton

by Carl Bernstein

Drawing from hundreds of interviews with colleagues, friends and with unique access to campaign records, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Carl Bernstein offers a complex and nuanced portrait of one of the most controversial figures of our time: Hillary Clinton. He has given us a book that enables us, at last, to address the questions Americans are insistently—even obsessively—asking: What is her character? What is her political philosophy? Who is she? What can we expect from her?


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Feminism, Womens

640 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Carl Bernstein is an American journalist who, as a reporter for The Washington Post along with Bob Woodward, broke the story of the Watergate break-in and consequently helped bring about the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon. For his role in breaking the scandal, Bernstein received many awards; his work helped earn the Post a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1973.

Reviews

[Delee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to make a promise- and that is, that this will be my last angry political review for at least 3 months.... There are so many reviews that I have fallen behind on- and after I cool down- I hope to get back to doing what I do.



...but after the political shenanigans in the last little while- I want to tick this review off the list and move along.



I adore Carl Bernstein for the most part. When I was a little tot- his coverage on Watergate was one of the first memories I have of journalistic integrity. All the Presidents Men is one of my all time favorite books and one of my all time favorite movies.

I am going to start this review with a little introduction to meeeeeee (mixed with some beautiful photos of Mrs. Hillary Clinton)- and if you are not all that interested in me (or beautiful photos)- then feel free to stop reading. ;)



I am a Canadian/American. I started my days in the USA and maaaaaaaaaaaaaan I was proud of that. I really had no interest in being a Canadian what-so-ever. I was beyond obnoxious in my American pride when I moved to Canada. It was something that at the age of ten, was forced upon me by two Canadian parents that decided to oust me from my home and move me back to their original roots. I fought being Canadian tooth and nail- I saw my living quarters as temporary- and one fine day I would move back to where I felt the most comfortable. My sister did...she moved to Manhattan and found a place with her husband, Ric Burns- where they make AWESOME documentaries for PBS (Yup, shameful family pride shout out to the Burns brothers)...my brother went back and moved to Atlanta.

I stayed behind to be close to my aging parents with health issues ...and every minute, of every day- I was waiting to be set free at some point...to head back to my homeland...for in my mind USA was the end all be all- Canada was a tad boring and bland. America was the home of the free and waaaaaay more exciting. I had no appreciation for what I was so lucky to have here.



This year would change everything for me- it was a gradual eye opener, starting in 2008 and ending in 2017...but this year- was the year I felt actual shame of the country I was born in... when I watched from the sidelines to what occurred in 2016-2017.

I had such hope when I saw THE PEOPLE vote in Obama- I was so jealous of the citizens that were going to be led by him. I wanted to be there among them- celebrating along side them. And I was so naive in thinking everyone would pull together and be on board.



I underestimated Republican politician smarminess. I had no idea there were people who would rather take someone down than build up their own country. Just say no to everything. Create chaos. Dirty tricks and smearing someone's reputation is more important than helping the people. Because we need to be back in power no matter what- and screw the people we represent. I should have known- for my first introduction into politics was Nixon. Why was I surprised?

What they did this year to Hillary is beyond repulsive...but why was I again surprised by that? It is what they have been doing from the very start of her political career. There are so many false scandals around this woman it is hard to keep track of ...and I am ashamed- I am ashamed to come from a country that would do this to a woman- who isn't without faults by any means...but one thing that is very apparent is that she has lived her life to try and help people. And being in the public eye fighting assholes crapping all over her name and her motivations was the hardest route to take. She could have very easily just been a lawyer, separated from her husband, been the martyr, and made tons of money- without having her name slandered over and over again. She chose to stay and fight. And in return she got nothing but horrible people, making up horrible stories, and blocking her at every turn.



You can choose to vilify her and knock her down..make fun of her hair, her husband's sex life, her age, her health- or you can actually try to be informed about the basic facts surrounding her rise up the ladder.

I have no want anymore- to be a part of a country that would vote for a vile, uniformed, reality star, careless, entitled- man-child, over a woman- that even though she isn't perfect- would have at least had better intentions than what we are left with today.

I do miss my family- but it will probably be at least be four years- until I join up with them again in a country I used to love. I hope being from America can be something I am proud of again. Right now- not so much.

If you have any want to have the facts laid out for you- read this book...I feel Mr. Bernstein is pretty fair- or you can continue to read things that leave you in laaaalaaaaa land...but to me- that isn't going to help you in the long run....or any of the rest of us for that matter. We are all going to pay.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein is considered by many to be the definitive biography on the celebrated despised captivating Yale Law School graduate, former First Lady/ U.S. Senator of New York/ Secretary of State and per recent and reliable polling, soon to be the 45th President of the United States, the first woman in American history to hold the highest of executive offices. Published in 2007, I came to this book already knowing which candidate I'd be voting for on November 8, but with so much innuendo, half-truth and lies circulating about Clinton, I was searching for facts.

Who remembers facts? Everyone who raised their hand is free leave their desks and come with me!

I was enthralled by the book, which focuses--rain and shine--on Clinton's undergrad and graduate career at Wellesley and Yale, her relationship with Bill Clinton, her role as First Lady of Arkansas and of the United States, and in the view of the author, co-president of the United States from 1992-1994. With that much historical record to examine, Bernstein glosses over her terms as senator and finishes the narrative with the announcement of Clinton's first presidential campaign in 2007. The detailed portrait he offers, in my estimation, is of an exceptionally bright policy worker and political centrist who's been exalted unduly and pillorized unjustly.

There are a lot of Americans who "feel" like they know who Clinton is and what she's done. Bernstein challenges that with precision in his team's research and eloquence in his writing. These are the top ten most compelling paragraphs in the book, illuminating Clinton's life, career and character:

1. At Hillary's insistence, a summer Upward Bound program for inner-city children was initiated on campus, antiwar activities were conducted in college facilities, the skirt rule had been rescinded, grades were given on a pass-fail basis, parietal rules were a thing of the past, interdisciplinary majors were permitted for the first time. One of Hillary's strengths as a leader, still evident today, was her willingness to participate in the drudgery of government rather than simply direct policy from Olympian heights. She attended committee meetings, became involved in the minutiae (of finding a better system for the return of library books, for instance), and studied every aspect of the Wellesley curriculum in developing a successful plan to reduce the number of required courses.

2. On the last day of the spring term, while walking from a politics and civil rights class, Bill asked Hillary where she was headed. She said she was on her way to register for the next semester's classes. They arrived together at the office of the registrar, who asked Bill why he was there since he had already registered. Hillary laughed when he confessed it was a ploy to be with her, and they "went for a long walk that turned into our first date," Hillary wrote. Bill suggested they walk to a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Yale Art Gallery, but they found the museum closed because of a campus-wide strike by unionized employees. He talked his way in by volunteering to remove the garbage that had piled up. Hillary was impressed. She was impressed by his range of interests, everything "from African politics to country and western music." Hillary knew that he "was much more complex than first impressions might suggest." They soon became a couple.

Side note: If alternate realities exist where Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham never met, or their first date ended disastrously, I doubt that either of them would be elected president in those worlds.

3. In San Antonio, she lived and worked with Sara Ehrman, who was fifteen years older. Hillary, recalled Ehrman, "came into campaign headquarters a kid--in brown corduroy pants, brown shirt, brown glasses, no makeup, brown shoes. Her Coke-bottle glasses. Long hair. She looked like the campus intellectual that she was. She totally disregarded her appearance." Sara said Hillary was a compulsive reader: contemporary fiction, religious tomes, the Bible, academic materials about child psychology. Hillary seemed to have everything in balance--the gift of seriousness leavened by the ability to have a good time. She was witty, genuinely funny; there was nothing stuffy about her, Sara thought.

4. Hillary taught criminal law and trial advocacy the first semester and criminal procedures the second semester. When Bill had decided to run for Congress, he had obtained permission from the dean to keep teaching through the campaign. He taught agency and partnership law, as well as trade regulation. Many students had both as professors. Hillary's style was confident, aggressive, take-charge, and much more structured than Bill's. "If you were unprepared, she would rip you pretty good, but not in an unfair way," recalled Woody Bassett, who became good friends with both, and worked in many Clinton campaigns. "She made you think, she challenged you. If she asked you a question about a case and you gave an answer, well then--here comes another question. Whereas in Bill Clinton's classes, it was much more laid-back." He was regarded as the easiest grader in the law school. Hillary's exams were tough, and her grading commensurate with what she expected serious law students to know. There was little doubt that she was the better teacher, possessed with "unusual ability to absorb a huge amount of facts and boil them down to the bottom line," Bassett thought. Clinton was more likely to go at a subject in a circular way, looking at it from every angle and sometimes never coming to a conclusion. But usually, his was the more interesting class, because of the passion and knowledge with which he addressed legal questions that related to everyday events.

Side note: I wonder how many University of Arkansas School of Law students claim to have had Bill and Hillary as their professors and how many were actually doing anything but attending class.

5. As would increasingly become the case over the next twenty years, Hillary was seen by many as a polarizing figure. For the first time, she became the object of intense dislike and verbal abuse. Clinton's opponents criticized him for having a wife with a career--a lawyer to boot--who was so independent-minded that she wouldn't take her husband's name. The "name issue" would become one of the most talked about of the campaign. Men and women around the state argued publicly and privately about it. "People thought even his wife didn't like him enough to take his name," said an acerbic political columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Meredith Oakley, who would make a name for herself writing about the Clintons. Within the campaign itself and among supporters, there were a number who urged Hillary to change her mind.

6. The most vocal opponent of putting Hillary in charge of health care was Donna Shalala, who (like Vernon Jordan) knew Hillary far better than most new members of the president's team, and so felt freer about speaking out. Shalala, four feet eleven inches tall, of Lebanese descent, an ardent feminist with both academic experience and sharp political skills, had known Hillary almost twenty years, since they'd first served together on the board of the Children's Defense Fund. And though she and the new first lady were friends, Shalala was certain that Hillary was ill-prepared for the job. There was too much mythology about Hillary that stretched the facts, she felt. Shalala had always been uncomfortable by hyperbolic statements from friends and acolytes of Hillary, as well as leaders in the women's movement who didn't know her personally, who put forth the notion that had she pursued her own political career and not deferred to Bill Clinton's, she would have been a governor or senator in her own right by 1992. "They assume that being smart is enough," Shalala said. "And it's not enough. It's judgment. It's experience. It's being strategic at the right points."

Sidenote: Donna Shalala served as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1993-2001 and is currently president of the Clinton Foundation. She gives Bernstein the most candid quotes in the book. Clearly, she's not worried about her next job.

7. Hillary was not wrong that old enemies in Arkansas, in conjunction with organized right-wing groups and the mega-wattage of talk radio, were hard at work. The unprecedented campaign against a sitting president and first lady, well organized and increasingly effective, continued. Across the Potomac, in northern Virginia, David Bossie and Floyd Brown (he had produced the Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign of George Bush) had set up shop as Citizens United. They issued a constant stream of lies, half-truths, devilish gospels, and conspiratorial epistles that told a tale of perdition and evil, and were peddled to mainstream news organizations, Republican offices on Capitol Hill, and right-wing talk show hosts especially. The distance from Citizens United to Rush Limbaugh and televangelist Jerry Falwell could sometimes be measured in milliseconds.

8. For a night at least, tens of millions of Americans thought that the country was finally going to get universal health care. That it never happened was largely Hillary's doing, though it is impossible to separate that failure from the siege of the Clinton White House enabled by Whitewater. Still, she was largely to blame for the political failure. "I find her to be among the most self-righteous people I've ever known in my life," declared Bob Boorstin, a former reporter for the New York Times who joined the Clinton campaign as a writer and became Hillary's deputy for media relations on the task force. "And, it's her great flaw, it's what killed health care, in addition to their joint stupid decision to give it to Ira Magaziner, and to keep it within their friends, and timing, and all sorts of other things, but generally speaking I think you can say at the core of it was her self-righteousness."

Sidenote: Bernstein gets surprising candor from former members of the Clinton administration or others close to their inner circle who can speak from a positions of knowledge. He wastes no time seeking "fair and balanced" coverage by those on the periphery peanut gallery.

9. The judgment early in the presidency, by Stephanopoulos, Shalala, and others, of her difficulty conceptualizing original programs and promulgating breakthrough ideas (such as Bill seemed to do with ease) had been acute. Perhaps without articulating it to herself, she began to recognize it in her post-health care ambitions. She worked well with existing structures, building on them, finding their weaknesses if called for, studying the mechanics of a program, whether foster care (as she did through 1997 and 1998, leading to the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999) or women's health programs. She was good at it, and very, very bright. She was a powerful, effective advocate, as she was discovering in her expanding campaign for human rights. The Senate was a perfect place for such a mind, and until her presidential ambitions collided with this vision of herself, she excelled without the need for a lot of tutelage or advice, whether from Bill or her policy aides. This attitude and ability had been manifest in her younger years, but dormant later, notably in the first term of the Clinton presidency.

10. She learned the ways of the Senate. She identified who her enemies were, or those of her husband, and waged a campaign to win them over, or at least neutralize them. That was the internal institutional strategy. The external strategy was to show her constituents that she wouldn't let them down. She worked particularly hard for those who didn't support her, as if to prove to them that she wasn't who they thought she was. Her small-steps policy in the Senate reflected what she had learned: she would not forget the day-to-day needs of her constituents while promoting her larger ambitions. Her representation on behalf of New Yorkers was effective, smart, and bold. Her initial committee assignments were Labor, Health Education, and Pensions; Environment and Policy Works; and Budget, all of which enabled her to direct funds to her home state.

Sidenote: No inaugural president will have had as much experience inside the White House as Clinton. The jury is still out on how much she's learned from her mistakes and how much she's changed. Stonewalling over her State Department email server--where again, no laws were broken, but the public grew suspicious of her concealment--suggests Clinton is human and not the Second Coming some of her followers would hope her to be. A Woman in Charge is a riveting read for anyone in search of a filter for all the misinformation surrounding Clinton, or who has more than a passing interest in feminism, politics or the law.

[Margaret]

As someone who at this point is still undecided, I thought that I'd pick up both this book and one of Obama's to read.

Let me tell you - HRC is a completely kick-ass woman, much more so than I'd ever thought. She's not an easy person to get behind, and this book make an unintentional argument against the cult of personality that seems to be sweeping the political arena right now.

Reading this book confirmed the things I didn't necessarily like about her, but it also gave me much more insight into how brilliant a political mind she is.

Things I learned:
Hillary was a rising political star as an undergrad in college - and as far back as the 1970s, there was serious debate about whether she'd be the first female president. Need I remind everyone that this was years before Bill Clinton had even begun to make a name for himself.

She is more of a community activist that Obama will ever be - she spent years working with migrant children, poor communities, African Americans - not as a stepping stone to political office - but as a deeply held belief in the power of service.

Some of the research she's done on children were used for years as a textbook example of progressive thought around issues of children and poverty.

Yes, there's a crazy dynamic in her marriage, but I'd say it's no more crazy than any other decades long union between two driven people.


This is definitely a book to read if you have even the slightest interest.

[Charlotte Apgood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Bernstein obviously has done a prodigious job of research on a woman who has stirred strong emotions among Americans for many years. Despite copious media coverage and intense scrutiny, she has remained somewhat of an enigma. Bernstein has written a book that smoothly presents a remarkable human being whose intellect and political savvy are impossible to ignore.

Collectively, the author's presentation of Hillary has defined a human being who, her tribulations notwithstanding, has stayed on target to values that evolved at a young age, and has consistently been true to her convictions. Her grasp of politics and her ability to clearly see the big picture are uncanny. It's difficult for this reader not to feel that, had she been a male, she could have leap-frogged into a position of power that might have ranked her among outstanding leaders in the eyes of history.

Not least among her strengths are her spiritual and religious beliefs and practice, dating back to her formative years in college. And the non-public display of her ongoing religiosity led me to re-evaluate my agnosticism. In retrospect,the overriding irony of her treatment (mistreatment?) by the zealous Christian right still causes me to chuckle.

And bizarre as it might seem to many others, her unquestionable love for her husband must be acknowledged and respected. President Clinton's undeniable philandering, whatever its origins, must be acknowledged less as a moral lapse and more as a pathological illness. And how can we overlook Republican icons such as General Eisenhower, Newt Gingrich, and a growing number of righteous congressmen? Did they not take the same marriage vows?

Overridingly, her ability to want to save her marriage is sheer bravery and proof of her basic decency and commitment.

I am midway through my eighth decade and cast my first presidential vote in 1952. I've seen this country, warts and all, as flawed but worth the collective efforts of its citizens to keep working to solve problems, to uphold constitutional law and to strive to view our weaknesses realistically. I've watched the current administration, powered by greed, ignorance and lust for power, bulldoze through a remarkable economic boon left by the Clinton administration, leaving us drastically in debt. The Bush cadre has slashed our constitutional rights, the aftereffects of which we might never overcome. And in seven short years, Bush & Company have driven a frighteningly unknown number of world citizens to view us as dangerous and unworthy of their respect.

Hillary Clinton has been through the political wars - her judgement, her clear vision and her humor and energy intact. No small accomplishment.

Bernstein is demonstrably a diligent researcher and talented writer. But his closing comments in the book strike me as misogynic, in that he appears to have reduced her to a distilled figurehead whose story is "a woman's story." What exactly does he mean by that? Even a simple mind grasps that this a story about a woman named Hillary. But to label it "a woman's story" can't escape being connated as an insult, rather than a mere statement of fact.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars despite the fact that this was long...way too long. It was comprehensive and seemed honest in its portrayal of our almost first Madam President.

I really don't have the time to review this book properly so I will only say that Hillary Clinton is a fascinating woman who has lived a very public life but still remains somewhat of a mystery to most of us.

I voted for her in this election, however, I've never been a huge fan and this book seemed to provide some justification for my reservations.

I know many liberals are feeling dismay at the Trump presidency, but it is time to admit Hillary was not without her faults. In my opinion she should have never been the the liberal nomination. Yes, she has experience, yes, she is more qualified than Trump, and yes, I think she at least believes she has noble intentions. Unfortunately, she has terrible political instincts, surrounds herself with yes men/women, and suffers from a sort of political narcissism (believes that she is on the side of good, that the end justifies the means, and that she therefore doesn't owe anyone an explanation for anything.)

Don't get me wrong. I think she's an amazing woman who has many worthy accomplishments, just don't think she would have made a good leader. The lesser of two evils...maybe...probably...I just don't know.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to review, because my feelings on how it was constructed are competing with my feelings on its content.

So, let's get this out of the way: Bernstein seems to have done an excellent and thorough job of researching this biography, directly interviewing many people involved in the Clintons' lives as well as consulting primary sources and news accounts. I do feel like there's a slant to this book, and that Bernstein came off as pessimistic about Hillary Clinton's life path to date, but to a certain extent authorial voice is inevitable, even in nonfiction.

The thing is... Clinton herself. (Henceforth, Hillary Clinton will be referred to by the surname, and her husband as 'Bill'. Let's mix up the convention a bit.)

I initially picked this book up way back in 2008, when it looked like Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee that year. Much like this year, she was facing off against a more leftist man who energized young voters; unlike this year, I was not yet old enough to cast a vote either way. Now I am, and as an adamantly liberal voter, I'm not pleased. Trump is clearly not an option; Bernie Sanders won't make it to the general election, and the longer he spends lashing out at Clinton the less I like him, anyway. That leaves me with Clinton, and...

Look, I'd love to see the first female President of the United States in my lifetime. We're long past due, and nations around the world have kicked our ass in this regard. I just don't feel like it should be Clinton, personally*, and the chronicle of her life Bernstein presented in this book only left me more uneasy about her.

I commented several times while reading this that a lot of it felt like a chronicle of Hillary Rodham's dissolution. The young woman Bernstein shows was open-minded, driven, full of conviction and high ideals, and strong-willed. Her relationship with Bill as described here is... the antithesis of this. From the beginning, according to Bernstein, she knew that he was sleeping around, and that nothing she could do would convince him to stop; she disliked it, and yet she compromised and married him anyway. Let me be clear: there's nothing wrong with open relationships, but that's not what this was. Clinton was pretty clearly unhappy about it the whole time, but Bill just couldn't be bothered to keep it in his pants. And then on top of that, her potential political career was subsumed to his, as she stepped back into the shadows to act as a governor's wife instead of a political operative and future candidate of her own... I can't help but wonder, what would American politics look like had Hillary Rodham never become Clinton; had she stayed independent, pursued her own goals first, and not let her husband steer the course of both their lives?

And then, as his political career continues, we see increasing disintegration of Clinton's ideals. At first she refuses to play a dirty campaign - but then Bill loses, and at the next cycle she slings mud with everyone else. Together they scapegoat Arkansas' teachers, despite not having any actual ideological disagreement with the union. When Clinton finally reaches the White House, she digs into policy, despite not having been the one elected (getting at the crux of one of my misgivings about her: that she seems to see herself as entitled to power).

One of the key aspects about Clinton that unsettled me throughout this book was the idea, brought up several times, that she didn't know how to listen to critique. "She never surrounded herself with people who would stand up to her, who were of a different mind," Bernstein reports one former aide saying. This... this is a major failing in a leader. An effective leader can't simply be an idealogue, but must be open-minded and willing to consider other perspectives at the same time as she seeks to hew to her own ideals. A balance between idealism and compromise is what makes effectiveness, and the idea of electing someone who deliberately surrounds herself with those who never disagree makes me nervous. (I should note that none of this outweighs my fear of a President Trump, who is if anything more self-centered and closed-minded than Clinton. I just... don't like this whole situation.)

However, on the upside: The picture Bernstein paints of Senator Clinton is much more flattering. To some degree this adds to my feeling that she would have been better with an independent career all along, because as he portrays it, she flourished in the Senate and became an effective advocate for her state's interests. It also seems like she did this by becoming a sort of social chameleon, but in the Senate this seems logical; a Senator needs to compromise and collaborate, and does not necessarily need to stand out from the pack to do so. Ingratiating onesself with better-connected colleagues is strategic.

Still, I'm not sure that that can make her a good President. I have so many misgivings - not least of which comes from Bernstein's frequent comparison of Clinton's autobiography, Living History, to interviews or other records, in which the autobiography often comes up short or seems to misrepresent events. Dishonesty - or lack of complete honesty, which in communicating issues of national significance is all too similar - is something of which she's often been accused, and to see so many contradictions between her book and other records inspires little confidence.

I feel like one of the best summaries of this book and the woman it portrays comes at the end:

Hillary values context; she does see the big picture. Hers, in fact, is not the mind of a conventional politician. But when it comes to herself, she sees with something less than candor and lucidity. She sees, like so many others, what she wants to see.

This is Bernstein's personal voice coming through, clearly; there's no way to be certain what's going on in another person's mind. And yet... from my observations of her during this campaign, it feels accurate. I have the sense that she pursues a vision of what should be, which she isn't willing to give up even when it becomes clearly impractical. I wonder a great deal what her candidacy this cycle did to influence other Democratic politicians who were considering running, and how much it came out of feeling that, after being defeated in 2008, 2016 was 'her turn'.

I suppose in the end I have to try to be optimistic. If Hillary clinches the Democratic nomination, as I'm certain she will, she'll have my vote in November, and I'll just... hope that she can prove herself a competent leader, politician, and representative of our country.

(*The day Elizabeth Warren runs for President is the day I start canvassing door-to-door.)

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came out in the early stages of the 2008 Presidential campaign. It added to the already growing interest and debate surrounding Hillary Clinton, since she was a front-runner in the Democratic Party. Some critics have accused Carl Bernstein of deliberately releasing the book to enhance Hillary's campaign, since it paints a mostly favorable image of her. The book is not, however, a political tract, in the context, as Bernstein points out, that her books ("It Takes a Village" and "Living History") were. It is an excellent biography of one of the most well-known figures of that campaign. It represented eight years of research, and drew upon all available records of the then-Senator's speeches and writings, in addition to interviews with over two hundred friends and adversaries. The most important personal source in this regard was the late Diane Blair, Hillary's closest friend and confidante since Bill Clinton began his political career in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the 1970's.

If Hillary Clinton was one of the highest recognized candidates in 2008, she was also one of the most polarizing politicians to run in the primaries. Peoples' reactions to her were based on the aspects of her personality which were revealed during her husband's terms as Arkansas' governor and as president. She had left a promising career as attorney and operative in liberal politics to marry her law school sweetheart and live in a state which was the emotional epicenter of his life, but which she had never visited. She and her husband maintained a relationship where her considerable energies and intelligence were invaluable to his eventually successful attempt to win the governorship of Arkansas. Her attempts to establish her own identity were met with scorn in Little Rock society, and she was forced to reconsider her earlier use of her maiden name while married, and to appear as the cheerful chief executive's wife at quaint ladies' lunches which she hated.

It was her strength which kept Bill's career on track, however, during his dejection of being defeated in his bid for reelection after his first term as governor; it was also her stoicism, which some would say was learned from witnessing the quiet suffering of her mother in a difficult marital relationship, which kept her own marriage on track when Bill was tempted to throw his career and marriage away to be with another woman (this last revelation was provided to Bernstein by Betsey Wright, Bill's Chief of Staff. See p. 184-185). This incident would be followed by numerous other extra-marital escapades of Bill's which would be covered in detail by the media over the ensuing years. She would remain married and work through the marital humiliations.

When Bill went to the White House, Hillary would assume the same insider role as she had in Arkansas, eventually being awarded the unprecedented power as First Lady of being given control of the the administration's most important domestic program, involving the overhaul of the nation's health care system. The heavy handedness and secrecy she exhibited in that role wasted huge amounts of the administration's political capital and, with other policy blunders, including Travelgate, facilitated the ending of the Democrats' 40-year congressional dominance. Her health care program would be sacrificed to the overriding need to balance the budget in Bill's second term.

Unfortunately for Hillary, more strength would need to be summoned during the second term, in the wake of the Lewinsky affair, Bill's impeachment and the ever-distracting Whitewater investigation. After Bill left office, Hillary surprised all who thought the Clinton's would fade into the woodwork, by running for, and winning a Senate seat in New York. Her tenure there, prior to the 2008 Presidential campaign, established her as an effective representative of the people with an identity not dependent on Bill. The previous uncompromising Hillary personality was jettisoned while she established her own personal power base. So, late in 2007, supporters and admirers were cheering-on Hillary's upcoming presidential bid while her detractors were complaining of their perception of the continuation of the Clintons' soap opera.

The personal identity that came out in 2007-08 was no surprise to those who knew Hilary Clinton's accomplishments. She was involved as a volunteer in political contests since high school, when she, believe it or not, campaigned for Barry Goldwater's Presidential campaign in 1964. This reflected the conservative political leanings of her family. She would pull away from that orientation while in college, first by supporting moderate Republicans (remember when there was such a thing?), such as Nelson Rockefeller, John Lindsey and Edward Brooke. The Civil Rights Movement and the growing outcries against the Vietnam war would push her allegiances further to the left during college, and she would support Eugene McCarthy's antiwar presidential campaign.

Hillary would become the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College in 1969. She continued to show academic brilliance at Yale Law School, and would work on the Yale Review of Law. She volunteered for the Yale Child Study Center and became an advocate for the new childrens' rights movement with her article, "Children Under the Law" after graduation. In the early seventies, she worked as a staff attorney for Marian Wright Edelman's Childrens' Defense Fund in Cambridge. After moving to Arkansas with Bill Clinton, Hillary cofounded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and taught Criminal Law classes at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, School of Law.

Bernstein has followed the threads which have wound from her father Hugh's start in the lace business in Scranton, PA to Hillary Clinton's pursuit of the highest office in the land. He offers the insight that Hillary is neither the demon of the right's fears and hates, nor is she a feminist saint. Her story is characterized by strength and vulnerability; as Bernstein says, it is a woman's story. He summarizes her as an intelligent woman endowed with energy, enthusiasm, humor, tempestuousness, inner strength, spontaneity in private, near-lethal powers of retribution, real-life lines that come from deep wounds, and the language facility of a sailor (or a minister), all attesting to her "passion." (p. 553-554).

He is not immune to her weaknesses, of falling to the temptation of misrepresenting not just facts but "often her essential self" (p. 554). He ultimately praises her for standing for good things, while showing consistency of her core beliefs and strength of character in adversity while lamenting the disconnect between her words and convictions, and her actions. Her story is still being played out. More will certainly be written as her career progresses, but the best starting point for assessing its meaning is this biography from Carl Bernstein. The events of Volume Two may take a long time to unfold but that promises some compelling future reading.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A political junkie friend of mine gave me this thick biography of Hillary Clinton published in 2007, telling me it was a good book. I was skeptical, but he was right. It's well-written, well-researched, balanced and yet painful to read because of its detailed account of Hillary Clinton's grim experiences married to Bill Clinton.

Hillary Rodham was a smart, take-charge girl who grew up under the heavy thumb of a brutish boor of a father and seemed determined--was determined, I should say--to prove that neither he nor life nor anything could keep her down. She excelled in school, in volunteer political work, in college and law school, and in the early phases of her post-education life, pursuing matters of policy that mattered to her: social justice, children's rights, gender equality, civil rights, and opposing the war in Vietnam. She was not a radical feminist or leftist or anything of the kind. She believed in principles, but she also believed in reason, problem-solving, and dialogue.

Along came Bill Clinton and she fell, as we know, madly in love with him, but she hesitated to marry him for a long time. She already knew, everyone knew, that Bill had a thing about fooling around. But he persisted in courting her, and he was brilliant and they agreed on the need for progressive political change. So they got hitched.

In a way, Hillary locked herself into an emotionally abusive marriage very similar to her emotionally abusive upbringing. Bernstein doesn't quite say it this way, but there it is. Bill was a test as her father was a test, and no matter how long it took, Hillary was going to pass that test.

As Bernstein presents it, the Clintons' cohort considered Hillary as likely to succeed on a national scale as Bill when they were starting out. In some ways, she was better known, and in some ways, she had more political experience, including an intense Washington experience as a staffer on the Senate committee investigating Watergate. But she married Bill, went to Arkansas and passed up a lot of personal opportunities that a more assertive feminist would have seized. Meanwhile, Bill ascended the political ladder from state attorney general to governor, and Hillary had Chelsea and succeeded as an attorney in Little Rock. All the time, however, Bill was wandering, skirmishing with skirts, presenting her with the kinds of challenges she'd been born into: the double bind of loving your father and knowing he is contemptible and loving your husband and knowing he is contemptible, too.

Real agony began toward the end of Bill's governorship and intensified in The White House, where Hillary started out making an incredible series of missteps,most significantly bungling national health care even though, smart as she was, she understood the needs and issues as well as or better than anyone.

Hillary struck people as bossy, arrogant, and indifferent to the cultural norms of Washington. She assumed she had been elected right along with Bill (Bill thought so, too), but that's not the way it works. There can only be one president at a time even though several hundred people in Washington think that the president ought to be him or her . . . and they didn't think it ought to be Hillary. I frankly cringed as I read about how she treated senior White House staff and Cabinet members. Inevitably, she flamed out in the biggest failure of her life--her national health care proposal was, as they say on Capitol Hill, d.o.a. (dead on arrival.)

But that humiliation was just the beginning. There really was (and still is) a vast right wing conspiracy gunning for the Clintons. Whitewater led to Vince Foster's suicide led to Paula Jones led to Monica Lewinsky. Each stop along the way was brutal for Hillary (and Bill, too, but this book is about Hillary).

She didn't give in completely because, I think, she had that determination forged in her as a child, a commitment to the same kind of policies as Bill, and a degree of religious faith that might be news to people who have not read this book. Christianity, in fact, is something she has thought about as much as she has thought about health care or education or social justice. It has given her the strength to endure having her privacy and family ripped asunder.

Hillary would despair but not give in. She would consider giving in a gift to enemies who did not deserve that gift, so she would rebound, strategize, and re-engage her excellent mind in the eight year battle that was Bill's presidency.

Why anyone would sacrifice as much as she did is a good question. In fact, why anyone would want to be president is a good question. A life led at that level does not have to be sordid, but it is fraught with constant pressure, demands, uncertainties, and tests of one's moral compass.

Bernstein's book ends with a kind of coda. Hillary escaped Bill's shadow to a certain extent when she ran for and won a senate seat while still First Lady. The degree to which he incinerated himself freed her. She became a thoughtful, courteous, deferential junior senator, but of course, she still had that national standing, which set her apart no matter what she did to observe the senate's written and unwritten rules. And she also had the drive and determination and intelligence that made people think, back in the 60s and 70s, that she would be even more likely to succeed than Bill.

Going beyond Bernstein's book, we know Hillary ran for president, wouldn't give in to Obama's obvious victory in the campaign for the Democratic nomination for the longest time (she just isn't built to give in), and then served as a reasonably effective Secretary of State.

When she left State (where I worked, too), I thought she was beat, flat-out exhausted, and I was right about that, but I was wrong when I said that she wouldn't have an appetite to campaign for president again. Persisting, unable to yield to her frailties or her foes, Hillary is on the trail again.

Fortunately for her, she has learned a lot since her disastrous time as First Lady. She is incomparably prepared to assume the presidency. No competing aspirant knows more about America or the world. Indeed, she may return to The White House, where she will try to run a progressive administration, a problem-solving administration, though probably not an elevating, eloquent, visionary administration because she is a pragmatist and might realize that simply being the first woman elected as president is inspirational enough.

Back to Bernstein: Though well-written, this is such a painful and detailed tale that it probably is a book for political junkies, not folks who like light reads. Its relevance today is the account it offers of someone who may be the next president. At times, Bernstein's editor should have insisted on smoothing out the narrative flow, but that's a quibble. I'll give it four stars. He's a dogged reporter and a fine writer.

[Nancy Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm no less conflicted about her being president than I was before I picked this up.

I found the section on her childhood illuminating, and as an amateur armchair headshrinker I thought it makes her attraction to Bill (and his to her) make perfect sense. I found the section on the White House years illuminating as well, in terms of the dynamics that culminated in Bill doing that utterly stupid thing he did.

While this isn't the hatchet job I thought it might be after hearing Carl on the talk circuit, it's clear he formed an opinion.

I still say that a lot of the grief she got in 1992 was because she dared to be something other than some Stepford First Lady, with a Valium induced smile and personality. I think her problem was that she dared, and she did it with zero charm.

I am given pause, however, by some aspects that don't bode well. She is a completely packaged product and wound way too tight. She also apparently tends to surround herself with yes people, which may lead to a mess not unlike the current occupant of 1600 Penn, who also appears to surround himself with sycophants and Kool Ade drinkers.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seemed to be a balanced account.

Hillary is such an INTJ, so it was interesting hearing about her personality since I'm one too. It's interesting how bad she was politically early on--due to some typical INTJ traits and being unable to play the social-political game in Washignton.

I like her and Bills relationship-matching too; two smart strong people who can argue and sharpen each others minds while also supporting and sticking with each other.

Going into this book, I didn't realize how religious or moderate she is. She's a life long and serious Methodist, but it's really cool how much her religion translates into helping people; the world would be better of if more Christians were like Hillary Clinton.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this to learn more about the candidate and wound up with more questions than answers. I consider Bernstein a pretty trustworthy source given his input in exposing the Watergate scandal--dude kind of watches out for government corruption. My basic conclusion is that the Clintons were screwed over a lot during their time in the White House, but equally their critical flaws managed to marr both their public image and effectiveness of office. HRC has a good track record with certain issues (children's rights, health care), some inconsistent ones (LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice), and some seriously problematic ones (crime, war). A lot, perhaps too much, attention is paid to presidential scandals. The shadows of Whitewater and Lewinsky permeate the book, which sucks because I'm far more interested in her policy views than political gossip. Bill Clinton's presidency takes up the bulk of the book, with most everything beforehand and her time in the Senate overshadowed by the 90s.

[Baden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a year or two ago. I learned a ton about the Clintons.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, easy-to-digest bio of our future president.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book is one thing, it's comprehensive. Almost 26 hours of audio was a daunting task to get through.

I didn't know much about Hillary Clinton's early life, college years, and religious conviction - what I learned impressed me and made me like her more. I had no idea that before Bill Clinton even met Hillary she was a rising political star who'd been president of Wellesley College and featured in Life magazine.

Being only 8 years old when Bill was elected president, I also knew little about her attempt to create universal healthcare and...wow, was that mismanaged. Bernstein did make the case that her tenure as a Senator showed she had learned a lot about how to (and how not to) get things done during the Clinton presidency and was better for it.

In the end, the picture I got was of a deeply compassionate person who has laudable goals to improve people's lives - and thinks the ends justify the means. Further, she's deeply hurt when her means are questioned. Doesn't everyone know she's just trying to help people? Why are they criticizing how it gets done?

The book ends at her announcement to run for President in 2007, so that campaign and her time as Secretary of State aren't covered - I would love a Bernstein-esque deep dive into Benghazi and other more successful things she did during that time.

[Julie]

Maybe it's that I write about people for a living too (I'm not a journalist) but I couldn't stand the style of this book. I know journalists are allowed to have unnamed sources but when I make a statement about somebody that's damaging I always name it's source so the reader can evaluate the context. Every nasty remark in this one was from an unnamed source. It just grated on me. I couldn't take it and I put it down. Perhaps I'll come back to it some day.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, objective look into the Clintons up to the point of Hillary running for the Senate.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge is a painstaking and I think honest biography of Hillary Clinton. It dispelled me of some myths I'd grown up hearing from my Republican family. I'd been taught, for instance, that Hillary was an opportunist who latched onto Bill because she knew he was going places. But Bernstein shows that Hillary was "on her way to becoming a political meteor" long before meeting Bill. She become a prominent antiwar leader in college, got elected student body president her senior year, and delivered a politically-charged commencement address that ended up being published in Life magazine. As one classmate put it, "It seems wildly tragic that we know she could have been president if she had just not even married him" (62).

And the evidence shows that Hillary genuinely loved Bill. One friend described her as being "besotted," "absolutely, totally crazy about Bill Clinton." Whenever Bill would be driving up to visit, her "face would change. It would light up." Some described her as being "near-obsessed with her relationship with Bill to the extent that her moods were dictated by the frequency of her phone conversations with him and the vibes she was picking up over the line from Arkansas" (97). One aide described the couple this way: "They would constantly argue, and the next thing you know, they'd be falling all over each other with 'Oh my darling...come here baby...you're adorable...' then throwing things at each other, and then they'd be slobbering all over each other" (113).

Bernstein shows that Hillary, whatever else you might think of her, has sincerely held the values she's spent her career defending. She grew up accepting the Republican beliefs of her martinet father but began to rethink things after her Methodist church hired a new youth minister when she was in high school. The minister had been a Freedom Rider and preached that that true faith is accompanied by a concern for social justice. One night he invited Hillary and some other students to hear Martin Luther King speech and afterwards took them backstage to meet the reverend (35). She increasingly began to take up the fight for justice herself. Upon graduating from Yale, she famously chose not to go into corporate law but instead worked for Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund. Shortly after moving to Arkansas, "she was the leading force in creating Fayetville's first rape crisis center, the consequence of a student coming to HIllary and telling of her experience after being raped" (127).

But by no means is this book an apology for Hillary. Yes, we read how during Bill's 1974 run for Congress her "high-minded ethical insistence" ran afoul with his campaign managers. A lawyer who represented the state's dairy interests offered the campaign $15,000 with the implicit understanding that if elected Bill would "serve the interests of the dairy industry once he was in office. But Hillary fought the deal during a heated election eve meeting," telling Bill, "No! You don't want to be a party to this!" (114). But Berstein also tells us that this decision might well have cost Bill the election, and in the years that followed Hillary "would be far less committed to the high road and much more concerned with results" (115).

Her Methodist faith has stayed with her over the years, and Bernstein details both its positive and negative effects. A White House aide said during the Lewinsky ordeal that her faith "explains the missionary zeal with which she attacks her issues and goes after them," as well as "the really extraordinary self-discipline and focus and ability to rely on her spirituality to get through all this." Others in the White House believed her faith engendered self-righteousness: "She elevates her staying with [Bill] to a moral level of biblical proportion. I am stronger than he is. I am better than he is. Therefore, I can stay with him because it's my biblical duty to love the sinner, and to help to try to overcome his defects of character. His sins are of weakness not of malice" (36).

She also evidently used her faith to support the ends-justifies-the-means approach to campaigning which she adopted after the 1974 election. In the years that followed she would join Dick Morris in trying to convince Bill of the need to run negative adds (166-67). Hillary and Morris "believed that you had to make somebody else the villain before you got fatally tarred yourself." This strategy "became a dominant leitmotif of Clintonian governance, a strategy meant to allow Bill's big ideas and grand goals -- and Hillary's tempered idealism and experience -- to flourish" (168). Stan Greenberg admired this about Hillary: "I think that Hillary was of that point of view that you were not going to have people's confidence unless you could show that you're strong and tough against your opponents. Your opponents need to know that you're not going to be passive, you're not going to be a punching bag, that you're not going to get pushed" (203).

Bernstein articulates what a trailblazer Hillary was in the women's movement. She began her career during a time in which few glass ceilings had been broken. The partners at Rose Law Firm was reluctant to hire her simply because she was a woman. "How will we introduce her to our clients?" one associate asked Vince Foster and Web Hubbell, noting that the firm's important clients were all men (129). This environment demanded a kind of no-compromising toughness of women, and Hillary was up to the challenge. Her colleagues and clients at the firm found her "intimidating -- not because she was particularly aggressive, but because she was rarely, if ever, deferential" (130).

Hillary must be given credit for much of Bill's success in Arkansas. She proved to be his rock whenever he faltered. Bill was "capable of self-absorption, self-defeating distractions, juvenile outbursts, a debilitating weakness for women, and a tendency to throw it all away when he was on the edge of greatness. This was particularly true -- and would become more so -- when left to his own devices, without the constant help, guidance, and encouragement of his wife" (154-155). After losing a gubernatorial election in 1980, Bill slipped into a debilitating depression, and friends believe Hillary is the one who helped him pick up the pieces, providing him with the assurance, giving his life much needed structure, and ultimately convincing him that his political career was not over (160-163).

Hillary also played a key role in reforming the state's educational system. Bill made her chairwoman of his Education Standards Committee in the early 1980s, and her "preparation for her assignment...was exhaustive, her expertise made almost as sharp as that of professionals with years of experience" (171). Her task force recommended mandating teacher-testing and requiring school districts to "uniform, state-imposed standards for curriculum and classroom size" (172). Although these reforms were unpopular with teachers unions, they proved to be incredibly successful: "the percentage of high school graduates who went on to college increased within four years from 38 percent to 50 percent," and school districts followed their instructions and reduced classroom sizes and began offering classes in foreign languages, advanced math, and science (174).

Through this all, her devotion to Chelsea remained "absolute and unconditional." Both she and Bill were "hands-on parents. Given the time-devouring nature of their public lives, they found a remarkable amount of time to be with their daughter: discussions at the dinner table, driving her to school, cheering from the soccer sidelines, Scrabble games, and enjoying movies" (149).

Bill developed an enormous debt of gratitude for Hillary and continued deferring to her after becoming president. She urged Bill to reject the advice of his more Washington-savvy advisers and remain combative and non-compromising with his political opponents. But this strategy, which had been so effective in Arkansas, did not work in Washington. Lawrence O'Donnell, who served as Pat Moynihan's aide, said, "When your purpose is to pass legislation, you don't set up war rooms and you don't believe that you are going to vanquish the opposition." Bernstein writes that Hillary was "in a permanent state of warfare with Congress, including members of their own party" (407), and as a result her husband's popularity began to plummet.

But what really hurt Bill's presidency was Whitewater and other related scandals, most of which involved Hillary. The accusations of their critics were ultimately shown to be baseless. After an investigation that lasted six years and cost taxpayers $52 million, the office of the special prosecutor could find no evidence that the Clintons had broken any laws, save Bill's lie about sex (349). And yet Hillary continually refused to cooperate with investigators, which only raised more suspicion and made matters worse.

Bernstein posits a number of explanations for Hillary's behavior here. In part she stonewalled because she worried they would learn about more of her husband's sexual affairs. She also possessed a "fierce desire for privacy and secrecy" (553). She had always "zealously protected herself (and her family) from almost any invasive inquiry that might reveal something of her emotional life, her deeper ambitions, or her machinations" (221). Finally, she "seemed unable, or unwilling, to grasp the desires of less antagonistic citizens, members of Congress, and the press to be given straightforward, timely responses to legitimate questions" (366). She'd devoted her life to public service and had recently been tasked to deliver her husband's promise of providing universal health coverage, and she believed that all reasonable people shared her priorities and did not care about these trivial matters from the past.

It's not clear how much Hillary has learned from these scandals, as her response to the recent email controversy has been eerily similar to her response to the Starr investigation. Her email usage was not illegal, although certainly careless and stupid, but instead of just coming out and admitting her error, she's again engaged in a type of lawyer-speak and subterfuge that has only made her situation worse. But in other ways Hillary has clearly learned from her mistakes. For instance, when she ran for the Senate in 2000, "she did the opposite of a lifetime's instincts: she restrained her tendency toward unequivocal advocacy and the assertion of her own strongly held views" and instead went on a "listening tour" of New York.

Although an effective PR move, the listening tour wasn't just for show. Ezra Klein has recently written: "[A]s I interviewed Clinton's staffers, colleagues, friends, and foes, I began every discussion with some form of the same question: What is true about the Hillary Clinton you’ve worked with that doesn’t come through on the campaign trail? The answers startled me in their consistency. Every single person brought up, in some way or another, the exact same quality they feel leads Clinton to excel in governance and struggle in campaigns...Hillary Clinton, they said over and over again, listens."

Klein initially didn't think much of Hillary's supposed listening skills, "[b]ut after hearing it 11, 12, 15 times," he began to take it seriously. He talked to a former Senate staff member who recalled how every few months Hillary would gather together her staff for "card-table time." Hillary would open up two "huge suitcases" which were "stuffed with newspaper clippings, position papers, random scraps of paper." "It turned out that Clinton, in her travels, stuffed notes from her conversations and her reading into suitcases," and she and her staff would pick through the papers. They would then put these papers into different piles on card tables: "scraps of paper related to the environment went here, crumpled clippings related to military families there." The staff member says that these notes "really did lead to legislation," as Senator Clinton "took seriously the things she was told, the things she read, the things she saw. She made her team follow up." And "[h]er process works the same way today." Several Clinton aides told Klein "that the campaign’s plan to fight opiate addiction, the first and most comprehensive offered by any of the major candidates, was the direct result of Clinton hearing about the issue on her tour."

Hillary has also developed a less combative and more team-building approach to governance. After becoming a senator, "[t]he first senators she sought out for conversation, for co-sponsorship of small but useful legislative initiatives, for prayer, for a drink, or for lunch in the Senate dining room tended to be those who had opposed the Clintons the most vigorously." Bernstein writes that she "identified who her enemies were, or those of her husband, and waged a war to win them over." "That was the internal institutional strategy. The external strategy was to show her constituents that she wouldn't let them down. She worked particularly hard for those who didn't support her" (547).

* * * * *

I can't say that I like Hillary more, or less, after reading this book, but I can definitely say that I understand her better. I can see that she's far from the demonic force that the far right has claimed. Hillary is a person of faith who has spent her life driven by a passion to make life better for society's most vulnerable citizens. She has an excellent mind and has learned from many of her mistakes. And she's also flawed. Her intense desire for privacy has at times led her to make awful decisions. And for all her intelligence, "when it comes to herself, she sees with something less than candor and lucidity. She sees, like so many others, what she wants to see." Bernstein laments that her 2003 memoir, when "judged against the facts," "underlines how she has often chosen to obfuscate, omit, and avoid" (552).

Hillary, in sum, is a remarkable woman, one who cares about people and has the ability to effect real change. And she also has some not insignificant weaknesses. After reading this book, I'm convinced that she has the ability to be an excellent president. I'm also convinced that if she's not careful she could easily get mired in the type of petty scandals which could sink her administration.

[Travis Bow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty objective (clearly left-leaning but not necessarily pro-Hillary), detailed account of Hillary's life and political career up to her time in the New York senate, with a lot of focus on her early political life (on the cover of Life magazine in college for speaking against the war at her graduation), her decision to marry Bill (which she and many friends feared would destroy her opportunity for a career of her own), her failure as health care Czar, her image management during the the many scandals in Bill's presidency (the Travel Office, Whitewater, Vince Foster, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky), and a tiny amount about her time as a Senator.

My basic takeaway is that Hillary grew up conservative, leaned left during college but tried to be a moderate with Bill for a long time, and now has pretty much standard liberal views. She's generally been especially concerned about advocacy for women and children (including government-provided healthcare etc.).

As far as armchair psychoanalysis, she seems to be extremely ambitious and achievement-driven; her desire to be The One That Fixed Healthcare drove her to reject all compromise and ultimately fail in implementing Hillary-Care (which, from the brief description, sounded similar to Obama-Care). She is fairly religious in a self-help/coping mechanism way, very meticulous in preparing her public appearances, and has a tenuous relationship with the truth, particularly when trying to protect herself. I think the author sums things up well at the end of the book:

"Since her Arkansas years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has always had a difficult relationship with the truth... it is an understatement by now that she has been known to apprehend truths about herself and the events of her life that others do not exactly share... In her artfully crafted public utterances and written sentences, there has almost always been an effort at baseline truthfulness, yet almost always, something holds her back from telling the whole story...

"As a girl, and then as a woman, Hillary has almost always been desperate to be a passionate participant and at the center of events... call it ambition, call it the the desire to make the world a better place, she has been driven...

"Hillary is neither the demon of the Right's perception, nor a feminist saint, nor is she particularly emblematic of her time, perhaps more old-fashioned than modern... Great politicians have always been marked by the consistency of their core beliefs, their strength of character in advocacy, and the self knowledge that informs bold leadership. Almost always, Hillary has stood for good things. Yet there is often a disconnect between her convictions and words and her actions. This is where Hillary disappoints."

[Theresaharris · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you take your time and really absorb the information, this is not an easy read. There is much information. I had to renew my book at the library twice!

The author, Carl Bernstein, is one of the best journalist of our time. Reading this book has given me even more respect for his work; and I will go on to read his biography of his Holiness.

Even though this book was published almost a decade ago, I found it relevant today especially for providing background to some of the stories from the Clintons' past, resurfacing now, as the United States prepares to elect their next president.

Hillary's long history of activism and interest in women's rights and children's issues is evident in this narrative. We get some insight to her upbringing and family of origin. It is easy to see that she is a person who tries to do good. She is interested in righting wrongs, and she is tenacious. It is also easy to see that sometimes she gets in the way of herself.

It is ironic that, as she entered public life as First Lady, she was seen as nontraditional & an outsider to Washington politics. People don't like what they don't understand and a thinking woman in a power position was so new to this country, that the opposition actively worked against the Clintons. This is not to say that the Clintons did not provide fodder for comment. Yet, each day she would have to wake up and begin the day defensively. I can only imagine what she might have accomplished had she not been forced to play the political game!

This book also provides information about the sex scandals of Bill Clinton. I cannot imagine how Hillary could go through such a public humiliation and continue. I think this speaks to her resiliency and her commitment to marriage. The love between Bill and Hillary is also apparent in the materials presented within the book.

When I think about how much time and money has been spent investigating the Clintons over the years, I feel like we have purchased her presidency. (And the time and money never substantiates the politicized talk of "criminal charges.")

Lastly, what else is evident in this book is how much Hillary has learned over the years. Show me someone who makes no mistakes and I will show you someone who does nothing. It bothers me that she gets very little credit for the work that she has done.

In conclusion, reading this book is a good use of your time, especially if you are voting in the upcoming presidential election.

[Bookskilledbovary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clearheaded and fair biography of a much maligned woman demonstrating all that is inspiring and vexing about a complicated person who has been both unfairly treated and is over protective and, at times, self defeating. Hard to recommend in 2018 as re-litigating the last 2 years is pointless, but still a very good portrait of a person who is often unfairly projected upon.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was inspired to read this book after hearing an interview with Carl Bernstein on NPR. I must say, he couldn't have picked a more fascinating subject for a biography. Somehow, Hillary Clinton has managed to keep her private life under wraps for all these years, which is strange, given how much of it has been devoted to good works.

The single thing that most surprised me about HRC is her deep and profound faith. After reading this book, I'm extremely impressed that she doesn't trot it out for public consumption in an age where politicians are always pretending to be the holiest of holies. I'm sure the image of her has a devout Methodist would floor her regions of opponents, who prefer painting her as a godless lesbian Communist. (Not that there's anything wrong with godless lesbian Communists -- I know quite a few and think they're just dandy.)

One of the stranger things in this book is that Bernstein seemed to want to debunk the myth that the Clintons' marriage was a Faustian bargain. After reading the book, however, that's what it seemed like to me. Granted, I do believe the two love each other, but I think the reason they stay together has more to do with power than pleasure.

I was also impressed by how the Clintons bonded together to be good parents to Chelsea, given their own horrible childhoods. I was very surprised at what a miserable tyrant HRC's father was, since she always idolizes the man in public. Sounds like everyone Bernstein interviewed thought Hugh Rodham was a real SOB, but for whatever reason, Hillary was secure in the knowledge he loved her. Guess there was no better training for being married to Bill.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a long, dense book but I'm glad I made my way through it. I grew up in an anti-Clinton household and adopted that mentality. It was only recently I realized that, as an adult, I could not articulate a reason to not like Hillary. Then, because I will not vote for Donald Trump and thus knew I would be voting for Hillary come November, I realized I also couldn't articulate a reason to support Hillary (other than Donald Trump). So I have embarked on a journey to learn about Hillary Clinton, and this is where I started. I think it's a great place to start.

A lot of what the author writes about is likely common knowledge to those who are familiar with the Clintons' rise to political power. I was 6 when Bill Clinton took office, so I was fascinated with the path that led the Clintons to the White House, baffled by their seeming ineptitude at dealing with Washington, and frustrated by the poor choices born out of Hillary's distrust. At the same time, I was drawn to the vulnerabilities of Hillary that somehow coexist so improbably with her strengths.

I think this book is fair and thorough. It demonstrates well the author's ultimate conclusion that "Hillary is neither the demon of the right's perception, nor a feminist saint, nor is she particularly emblematic of her time--perhaps more old-fashioned than modern. Hers is a story of strength and vulnerability, a woman's story."

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

OMG - I feel like I deserve to be president after finishing this book!

Sarcasm aside, I picked a bad time of year (with the holidays upon us) to read a 550-page tome focused on politics. 'Nuff said.

But for what it's worth, this book is captivating in its own way. I was fascinated by Bernstein's retelling of Hillary's youth, her years in college, first meeting Bill, their early years in Arkansas, and so on ... It's when I hit around Page 300 that I started to lose a bit of interest with the book getting bogged down with so many names (here's where Bernstein would have benefited from a "List of Characters" reference) and so many quasi-conspiracies (Travel Gate, Vince Foster, etc.)

The book picks back up again with the Lewinsky affair, but ends before we get into Hillary's years as a senator - which is too bad because I wanted to know more about her track record post-White House.

Reading this, I definitely have a better understanding of all that went down during the Clinton presidency, and it's hard to deny that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" didn't exist.

Any qualms aside, if Hillary does happen to pick up the Democratic nom in '08, I think this book should be required reading. Elsewise, pick up at your own (political) interest.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew - wow, what a mammoth read! This long extraordinarily well-researched book is almost as incessant and relentless as the campaign against Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Bernstein offers a dense, warts-and-all read that covers more aspects and interviews than any biography I have read before in his efforts to uncover this complex and quite enigmatic woman. Despite the fact that she lived in the gold-fish bowl of the White House for 8 years, she is intensely private, making it difficult to get proper handle on a woman who has stirred such strong emotions in the US.

I suspect, for now, this is as close and complete a portrait that we can expect of this remarkably intelligent and politically savvy woman who seems intent on moving back into her old digs.

I found myself exhausted after every session with this book and can only imagine what it was like to live with the level of scrutiny and persecution they endured, on a daily basis. And yet, she seems hell-bent on doing it all again. What a remarkable woman!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's be honest, I was going to like this book no matter what. I love me some Hills. But, I really do think Bernstein does a good job portraying an accurate picture of HRC. He is especially critical of her own biography, Living History, which I also thought was pretty much crap. The portrait he paints is much more realistic, and super-detailed, and still positive overall. The one thing I disliked is that he focuses ALOT on the Clinton presidency, which I suppose is to be expected, but it almost felt like it turned into a biography of Bill for that (lengthy) part of the book, while her time in the Senate is covered in much less detail. He does a great job, though, of tying together all of the parts of her life and how they have shaped her choices. After reading it, I want her to be president even more because it would be THE FULFILLMENT OF EVERYTHING.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bernstein has done a good job of explaining America's response to Hillary Clinton--her plusses, her minuses, and also how politics in Little Rock vary so much from those in Washington, DC and how that was not helpful for the Clintons when they moved into the White House. It is also a look at how "boomer" women have been perceived in our country for a long time--including this quote:

"Richard Nixon, meanwhile, had been asked to comment about the Clinton campaign (Bill's) in an interview during a rare visit he had made to Washington. 'If the wife comes through as being too strong and too intelligent,' he remarked, 'it makes the husband look like a wimp.' Nixon said voters tended to agree with the assessment of Cardinal Richelieu: 'Intellect in a woman is unbecoming.' "

[Lezley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a biography that was a page turner. This book, once I started, I couldn't put down. After the election, I just couldn't figure out how Hillary Clinton could possibly have lost. I had to find answers and Bernstein's fair portrayal of this complex woman helped me understand. She just seemed to carry too much baggage. In spite of errors she made along the way, I feel that, had she been elected President, she would always have put America first. And probably, America would be better off for having such a dedicated President. Certainly, women, children, minorities, immigrants, and gay people would have had a better world; and by extension, it would have been a better world for us all.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hillary is complex, and in her heart of hearts I think wanted to do good for others, but she has been plasticized and frozen to an unrecognizable shell. In the end, if she was unable to pull herself away from Bill as he deserved, what other reason could there be but a political one? And if you sell your heart and soul, you sell. I wish I could believe in her, but after Bernstein's analysis, I feel she has lost her ability to know herself well enough to govern. Glad I read this, even though it was quite a slog here and there.

[Katey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was wanting to understand more about Hillary and respect this author's books. At the time, I was sorting out which Democratic candidate to support and was reading Barak Obama's books, as well. This particular book I found balanced, informative, and interesting. Her story, and her inclinations (that I read about in a different book as well by her)and her current actions led me to support Obama, although I respect her running for the highest office. I think Bernstein writes well (second book I've read by him).

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bernstein has certainly been thorough in his research. I gained some more insight into the Clintons compared to Hillary's own book "Living History". Bernstein actually refers to her book rather frequently to offer what her position was vs. the people close to her that he's interviewed. I was surprised at the number of people he actually got to speak on the record ie: close family friends and former high level employees from both the Clinton's Governor and Presidential days. The book covers from her childhood into her time as Senator. Well worth the read.