NEW hardcover

My Life Clinton, Bill

President Bill Clinton s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the publicIt shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governorWe see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political lifeWe come to understand the emotional pressures of his youth born after his father s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never ceased to love and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behaviorPresident Clinton s book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency actually works: the daytoday bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievementsIt is a testament to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his idealsIt is the gripping account of a president under concerted and unrelenting assault orchestrated by his enemies on the Far Right, and how he survived and prevailedIt is a treasury of moments caught alive, among them:The tenyearold boy watching the national political conventions on his family s new and first television setThe young candidate looking for votes in the Arkansas hills and the local seer who tells him, Anybody who would campaign at a beer joint in Joiner at midnight on Saturday night deserves to carry one box You ll win here But it ll be the only damn place you win in this county He was right on both countsThe rollercoaster ride of the 1992 campaignThe extraordinarily frank exchanges with Newt Gingrich and Bob DoleThe delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing RabinThe cost, both public and private, of the scandal that threatened the presidencyHere is the life of a great national and international figure, revealed with all his talents and contradictions, told openly, directly, in his own completely recognizable voice A unique book by a unique American