The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton - Softcover

Milton, Joyce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688177727 ISBN 13: 9780688177720

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2000

Synopsis

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Hillary Rodham Clinton has fascinated the nation since she became First Lady in 1992. In The First Partner, acclaimed biographer Joyce Milton goes beyond the headlines and offers real insight into Clinton's character, her values, and her career.

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Milton offrs new perspectives on the firestorms that have raged about Clinton, from the health-care fiasco to Whitewater to the Lewinsiky scandal. She also examines Clinton's attempts to reconcile a host of contradictions--feminist convictions in painful collision with family commitment; philosophical beliefs in conflict with political reality; the precarious balance between professional ambition, public image, and private life. Lively and evenhanded, this definitive biography is a revealing portrait of one of the most enigmatic women in politics.

About this title

Review

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a touchstone for a generation. Supporters view her as a feminist icon, detractors as an enabler for her husband's constant philandering--and as someone with her own dangerous political agenda. The First Partner is a well-written, well-researched, and insightful biography in which Joyce Milton fully considers her subject's many contradictions. Hillary Rodham's upbringing was as stern and demanding as her husband's was loose and adoring. She has always provided discipline; he, charm. Milton concludes that the first lady's "most significant public accomplishment by far" has been "saving Bill Clinton from political ruin" by standing by him and stage-managing behind the scenes on numerous occasions.

Those who crave sensational tidbits will not be disappointed by the book's "greatest hits" recap of the various Clinton scandals: the suggestion that Bill Clinton used drugs when he was governor; that the Clintons considered divorce; the alleged affair between Hillary and Vince Foster; her use of profanity with Secret Service agents; the banning of Barbra Streisand from the White House; the "kitchen coup"; the pornographic Christmas ornaments; the failure to credit her collaborator on It Takes a Village--not to mention Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Chinagate, and Monicagate. Milton claims that whenever there is trouble, Hillary Clinton can usually be found right in the middle of it, but that she consistently denies involvement, expecting friends and employees to cover up for her. Perhaps Milton's most valuable contribution in The First Partner, though, is to take a hard look at HRC's liberal ideas and politics going back to her college days, including the groups to which she has belonged and the people with whom she has associated. An understanding of these views, obviously strongly held, will become increasingly important and relevant when evaluating Hillary Rodham Clinton's political character during--and after--her husband's presidency. --Linda Killian

About the Author

Joyce Milton is the author of Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin and several other books. She is also the coauthor of The Rosenberg File. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0688177727
• ISBN 13: 9780688177720
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480