Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady

Modern First Ladies

by Gil Troy

For most first ladies, their years in the White House are their sole claim to fame. For one--Hillary Rodham Clinton--that tenure was just another step in a remarkable political career. Neither a hit job nor a facile tribute, Gil Troy's lively and refreshingly nonsensational new book provides a revealing look at arguably the most polarizing First Lady in history and undoubtedly the most prominent American woman of our time.

Troy, named by History News Network one of America's Top 15 Young Historians, measures Clinton's historical footprint, tracing her activities during the turbulent decade that brought her to national prominence and examining her influence as a key player in her husband's administration. Covering her attempts to overhaul health care and redefine the first lady as co-president while she tried to cope with her husband's scandals and impeachment, he recounts how Hillary's rocky road had a mixed impact on the office, even as her ambitions illuminated the role's potential.

As the first feminist first lady, Hillary Clinton faced dilemmas typical of modern American women as she tried to be both a family-oriented, devoted wife and a career-focused, independent woman. Troy shows how she did her best to navigate this divide and breaks new ground in taking her seriously as a thinker. Delving into Hillary's speeches and writings, he uncovers a surprisingly more moderate, even conservative worldview. In fact, he finds some of her positions--such as her outspoken views on abortion--to be authentic expressions of a genuine Puritan/Methodist centrism rather than a mere political ploy.

Offering a mix of praise and censure that elevates to a more sophisticated level debates about her controversial career and presidential aspirations, Troy's book will enlighten and intrigue Hillary's passionate critics and staunch defenders alike. It will renew discussions of where she stands in the continuum of modern first ladies--and of where history will ultimately take her. Many of the book's key themes are effectively underscored by an entertainingly narrated photo essay, with provocative images drawn from the Clinton Presidential Library.

278 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2006

About the author

Gil Troy is the author of "The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s" to be published October 6 by Thomas Dunne Books of St. Martin's Press. An American presidential historian and a regular columnist for the Daily Beast, this will be his eleventh book. He is Professor of History at McGill University and will be in Washington DC this fall as a Visting Scholar at the Brookings Institution. Troy wrote The Age of Clinton on a tight deadline, speculating that Hillary Clinton just might run for President in 2016 and that Americans would be ready this fall to rethink what happened in the 1990s. He worked until 5 AM most nights, woke up at 7 (he is married with four children), jogged for an hour, then worked. He met the deadline and lost 30 pounds.

Reviews

[Helena]

litt biografisk eigentleg, men fekk òg skrive nokre notat

[Nancy Cohen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in the writing of this book. It was repetitive and did not provide the insight I thought it would. I found myself skimming multiple times, thinking, "I've already read this."