Shadows of Hope: A Freethinker's Guide to Politics in the Time of Clinton

"[Sam Smith’s] work is not different from what quality journalism ought to be: truth-seeking, independent, fair-minded and debunking.... In ‘Shadows of Hope,’ Smith penetrates the darkness with the language and probing skills of such earlier independents as George Seldes, I. F. Stone and Tristam Coffin." ―Colman McCarthy, The Washington Post

"Shadows of Hope is in the style and tradition of I. F. Stone. It carries the reader from the De-Constructionism of the Bush years―with its language largely a collection of predicates and prepositions―into a new political order of Post-Modernism―which is outside history, without continuity, loyalty, or reasonable stability in the meaning of words." ―Eugene J. McCarthy

"In an age of sound bites and increasing political homogenization, Shadows of Hope is an encouraging sign that independent analysis is still alive and occasionally kicking." ―Michael Rust, The Washington Times

"A progressive journalist offers a tonic, conversational critique of the Clinton era.... an accessible catalogue for those questioning the new status quo." ―Kirkus Reviews

"... Smith’s contribution to [our] unabated sense of alienation is frightening and warrants consideration." ―Library Journal

"Shadows of Hope is a clarion warning about the increasingly meaningless and undemocratic nature of sound-byte American politics." ―Joan Hoff, author of Nixon Reconsidered

"Shadows of Hope is a lively, astute, and powerful critique of the Clinton approach to our national crises. It raises profound questions about our two-party system as a corruption of the democratic ideal." ―Howard Zinn

"In a spirited and compelling style, editor Sam Smith gently weaves messages about community and individual empowerment.... Whatever the debate [his newsletter’s ] sharp critiques encourage us to look out our window, notice and act upon what we see, and also to look further―to the rest of the country and globe―to see how the organized big world interacts with our more spontaneous small worlds." ―Utne Reader

"Smith knows as much, if not more, about the city of Washington as anyone. He has been writing about and fighting local problems for years." ―Robert Cassidy, Chicago Tribune

Journalist Sam Smith asks, who is Bill Clinton and what can we learn from his personal background, his performance in the campaign, and his first year in office? Up-to-the-minute in terms of issues and Washington gossip, the book also reaches beyond the score-card approach to place Clinton within the culture―political, social, and economic―of our time. Smith tells a cautionary tale for all Americans.

SAM SMITH is editor of the Progressive Review and has been an alternative journalist in Washington, D. C. for three decades. He was editor of the DC Gazette and one of the founders of the D. C. statehood movement. His book, Captive Capital: Colonial Life in Modern Washington (also published by Indiana University Press) is still regarded as a major source on non-federal Washington twenty years after its publication.