Top 16 Books About The Clintons Updated 04 /2024

Since you've talked to Hillary Clinton over the years, what have you learned?

She and her husband were running for President in 1991, and I first met her then. Before: I've looked at her from all sides since then.

She is a very different person when she is alone or when she is running for a job. She is very different when she is alone. Bill Clinton might be thought of as a warm and friendly person because that's how he looks in public. Hillary, on the other hand, seems to be more slow and less colorful when she is out in public. In fact, she is the one who is a little more friendly. She is also very smart and very good at law. In the beginning, when I first met her, she used a legal term that I had to look up.

First in His Class: A Biography Of Bill Clinton

by David Maraniss

Getting into your books and reading. The Chicago Sun-Times called it "a triumph of politics." He was the first Clinton to become president. It's a book about him, Bill. It was written by you. The first person in his class.

It was my goal to write about the first person from my generation, the post-war baby boomers, who made it to the White House. In this book, you'll learn about Bill Clinton's life, but you can't write about him without writing about Hillary. In 1971, when they first met at Yale Law School, they saw that together they could go places that they couldn't go alone. She has been a big part of his rise, and the same is true for him.

When it comes to family and work, there is always a conflict.

When people talk about the Clintons, they sometimes think that the compromises they've made as a couple and the way they've helped each other along the way are bad because they're bad. Who are they to you? How have you learned about them?

For all politicians, as well as for all people, there is a conflict between ambition and ideals. The Clintons are a way to make that tension even bigger. A defense she has built up over more than 40 years with Bill Clinton is mostly in defense of him and their rise together, but also because of his own flaws. Over the past few years, she hasn't been as open as she should have been in order to protect him and their relationship. She thought that her goals outweighed her means.

He is thought to be the best politician in the world. He has taught her what?

He's a great politician and a great campaign manager, but none of his skills seem to work for her, so she can't use them. His fluidity and ability to make everyone think he's talking to them aren't in her, and she doesn't have the same skills. On the other hand, he has said a lot of things that haven't helped her. It's an interesting thing. President: In part, her political career has been made possible by him because he became president. Since then, I don't know how much help he's been.

The Feminine Mystique

by Betty Friedan

Next, we'll move on to a title that everyone knows. Betty Friedan wrote The Feminist Mystique. You can tell us about it and how it fits in with our subject.

This generation of women was at the heart of feminism. Hillary Clinton is from this group of women, too. Several books written by Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir, and other women had a big impact on Hillary and many other women from her generation. She had a lot of people who knew her think she would be the one to lead the movement. Yet in 1974, when she was in her 20s, she moved to Arkansas and linked her career to Bill Clinton's.

Between family and work, there's always a little bit of a fight. Hillary's life shows that. Betty Friedan's book talks about it.

In 1994, Friedan wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about what she thought was an organized effort to make fun of Hillary during the first Clinton administration. Hillary once called this effort "a vast rightwing conspiracy." They were either right or wrong. As far as I know, how much of the efforts against her have to do with sexism.

It's always more complicated than that, but it's a big part of why people don't like Hillary. Lock her up is such an echo of how women have been demonized in history that there's a part of it that can't be denied. Then again, that's on a bigger scale, and you also have to think about how she acts and what kind of person she is.

"I have no reason to be suspicious or cynical about how faith has played a role in her life," says the person.

West with the Night

by Beryl Markham

Her favorite book is West With the Night by Beryl Markham. Please tell us.

For as long as she could remember as a child, Hillary dreamed of being an astronaut. In her childhood, she lived near O'Hare Airport, which is where planes fly. She's always been attracted to strong women, even though she isn't the most brave person herself. Her mother named her in honor of Sir Edmund Hillary, a great mountain climber who lived in the 1800s. Her love for adventurers shows up in every part of her life.

Hillary Clinton is a lot like a feminist icon like Markham. Is breaking through the glass ceiling something that has driven her to do this?

More than she likes to show off in front of people. As president, you are president of everyone, so Barack Obama couldn't show too much of his identity as an African-American. Hillary, on the other hand, has been very careful. But inside, and more and more outside, she sees herself as a pioneer. If she is elected, I think that will spread over her and a lot of the country.

Play It As It Lays

by Joan Didion

Another Joan Didion book, Play It As It Lays, is coming up next, so stay tuned for that. Tell us all about it.

As the young wife of Arkansas' governor, Hillary and her best friend, Diane Blair, would read books together and talk about them. Blair is a professor at the University of Arkansas, where Hillary went to school. It was a book they both read, and they both thought it was great. They talked a lot about it.

Several years ago I read it. The book has a gloomy tone to it when it comes to marriage.

This book has a lot of people who are corrupted or psychologically broken. She has talked about how she blamed some of her husband's flaws on his family's history of mental abuse. Is that why this book is so good?

I think so, too. She knew that her husband had a lot of addictions, you might say. Again, when you're a politician, it's hard to talk about these things in front of other people. That's another thing about Hillary's inside.

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

by Henri Nouwen

Finally, at a TV town hall during the 2016 primary season, Hillary Clinton said this book was a spiritual guide. Henry Nouwen is a Dutch theologian who wrote a book called The Return of the Prodigal Son. Please tell us about it.

During an interview with Hillary, she talked a lot about this book and the discipline of being grateful. As a Methodist, she has been able to keep going because of her faith. She brought it up to show how important that faith has been to her. One of her favorite books is this one. It had a big impact on her ability to keep going even when things were bad.

"I didn't like any of them at all." I didn't think they added much to the equation, so I didn't read them.

Her faith has a big impact on how she sees the world. Yes, it is her tent pole.

She has a very interesting personality. In this case, it's hard to say that just one thing is the tent pole. In other words, I don't have any good reason to be suspicious or cynical about how faith has played a role in her life.

Hillary Clinton has also said that this book is "a call to forgive." Do you think forgiveness plays a big part in how she acts and how well she does at her job?

Her husband has hurt her a million times. For all the things she's been through, I don't know if she can forgive everyone. People can be very difficult. You can have forgiveness inside of you, but you can also have a little anger inside of you. But I don't think that one of the things that keeps her going is her desire to be grateful and forgive.

You haven't read Hillary Rodham Clinton's two autobiographies, Living History or Hard Choices, so you don't know what they are. Is your omission a sign that Clinton's claims about himself aren't true?

I didn't like any of those books at all. I didn't think they added much to the equation, so I didn't read them.

The last thing I want you to do is think about how a Hillary presidency would be different from her husband's two terms.

A little deja vu will happen, because from the start, maybe even more intensely than with Bill, her Republican opponents will be working hard to try to make her presidency look less legitimate than it was with Bill.

They are very different. She is a lot more organized than her husband was. We might see less chaos in her White House staff.

In politics, things have changed a lot. When her husband was alive, he was living in an environment that was very divided but also very conservative. She'll be to the left of her husband, if she can.

During her time as a Senator, she was able to work out compromises and get along with Republicans. Her ability to work across the aisle might surprise people if it is allowed to happen, which is becoming less and less likely.

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