Overview
President Bill Clinton led one of the most influential and consequential White House tenures in recent memory. However, because of the office's traditional climate of confidentiality, many details of his behind-the-scenes activities have remained absent from the written record. How did the administration manage the horrific conflicts in Haiti, Somalia, and the Balkans that came to a head shortly after the President took the oath? What motivated the President to place First Lady Hillary Clinton at the helm of the ill-fated Health Security Act of 1993? And how did the President's closest confidantes and aides respond to the outbreak of the devastating scandal that nearly ended his presidency? Inside the Clinton White House offers an intimate perspective on these questions and many more, granting readers unprecedented access to the sensitive Oval Office banter that changed the course of history. Bringing together material from 400 hours of candid conversations with over sixty individuals, respected oral historian Russell L. Riley weaves this illuminating testimony with important contextual information to form an irresistible narrative, taking the reader from Clinton's first potential White House bid in 1988 to the final days of his remarkable and controversial career. Extended sections of the book are devoted to important domestic and foreign policy campaigns, the complicated politics of the President's two terms and impeachment, and portraits of important personalities in the administration, including Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. These forthright and often surprising accounts add a layer of nuance to an iconic figure in America's recent history, as told in the words of the people who knew him best.
Full Product Details
Author: Russell L. Riley (Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program, Miller Center, University of Virginia)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 2.90cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.590kg
ISBN: 9780190888497
ISBN 10: 0190888490
Pages: 464
Publication Date: 17 September 2018
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
This valuable text, and the good work of its editor, will benefit multiple categories of individuals, from general readers interested in the presidency through seasoned presidential scholars. - Congress and the Presidency [Inside the Clinton White House] contains plenty of insights... Every chapter crackles with anecdotes and serious discussions for political junkies, including Clinton partisans and Clinton detractors. - Kirkus The inevitable question that trails every action or reaction within a presidency is, What really happened? Here now in Russell Riley's Inside the Clinton White House is the answer-more accurately, the answer(s)-for Bill Clinton. They come in the stunningly candid oral history recollections of the people who were there with Clinton. The end result is not only a serious account of the working and thinking in a modern presidency. It reads like a page-turning adventure novel. - Jim Lehrer, former PBS TV anchor and novelist This oral history is indispensable in understanding President Clinton and his times. The interviews are wonderfully readable and splendidly evocative, page after page, and provide a window for us to understand how policy was transformed from the maelstrom of the campaign into the mechanisms of governance. - Richard M. Pious, Adolph and Effie Ochs Professor (emeritus), Barnard College and author of Why Presidents Fail Russell Riley has done a superb job of editing reminiscences of the tumultuous Bill Clinton presidency. Recollections of insiders about what it was like to be in the White House on learning that Vince Foster had committed suicide, that the president had engaged in sex with a young intern, and that Republicans were going to impeach him will keep readers enthralled page after page. - William E. Leuchtenburg, author, The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton Compelling...[Russell Riley] has made an essential contribution to our understanding of the Clintons and their times - providing potent ammunition for partisans, useful evidence for scholars, and juicy historical tidbits for all. - Washington Post
Compelling...[Russell Riley] has made an essential contribution to our understanding of the Clintons and their times - providing potent ammunition for partisans, useful evidence for scholars, and juicy historical tidbits for all. * Washington Post * [A] valuable volume featuring everyone from Clinton secretary Betty Currie to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright... [It] reminds us that most presidential history * scandals included * Russell Riley has done a superb job of editing reminiscences of the tumultuous Bill Clinton presidency. Recollections of insiders about what it was like to be in the White House on learning that Vince Foster had committed suicide, that the president had engaged in sex with a young intern, and that Republicans were going to impeach him will keep readers enthralled page after page. -William E. Leuchtenburg, author, The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton This oral history is indispensable in understanding President Clinton and his times. The interviews are wonderfully readable and splendidly evocative, page after page, and provide a window for us to understand how policy was transformed from the maelstrom of the campaign into the mechanisms of governance. * Richard M. Pious, Adolph and Effie Ochs Professor (emeritus), Barnard College and author of Why Presidents Fail * The inevitable question that trails every action or reaction within a presidency is, What really happened? Here now in Russell Riley's Inside the Clinton White House is the answer-more accurately, the answer(s)-for Bill Clinton. They come in the stunningly candid oral history recollections of the people who were there with Clinton. The end result is not only a serious account of the working and thinking in a modern presidency. It reads like a page-turning adventure novel. -Jim Lehrer, former PBS TV anchor and novelist [Inside the Clinton White House] contains plenty of insights... Every chapter crackles with anecdotes and serious discussions for political junkies, including Clinton partisans and Clinton detractors. * Kirkus * This valuable text, and the good work of its editor, will benefitmultiple categories of individuals, from general readers interested in the presidency through seasoned presidential scholars. * Congress and the Presidency *
Author Information
Russell L. Riley is Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, where he has conducted nearly 300 oral history interviews with senior officials from every administration from Jimmy Carter onwards. He is the author and editor of several books on the American presidency, including The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality: Nation-Keeping from 1831 to 1965 and The President's Words: Speeches and Speechwriting in the Modern White House.
