Bill Clinton: The American Presidents
About this audiobook
Bill Clinton: a president of contradictions. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale Law School graduate, but he was also a fatherless child from rural Arkansas. He was one of the most talented politicians of his age, but he inspired enmity of such intensity that his opponents would stop at nothing to destroy him. He was the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win two successive presidential elections, but he was also the first president since Andrew Johnson to be impeached.
In this incisive biography of America’s forty-second president, Michael Tomasky examines Clinton’s eight years in office, a time often described as one of peace and prosperity, but in reality a time of social and political upheaval, as the culture wars grew ever more intense amid the rise of the Internet (and with it, online journalism and blogging); military actions in Somalia, Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo; standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge; domestic terrorism in Oklahoma City; and the rise of al-Qaeda. It was a time when Republicans took control of Congress and a land deal gone bad turned into a constitutional crisis, as lurid details of a sitting president’s sexual activities became the focus of public debate.
Tomasky’s clear-eyed assessment of Clinton’s presidency offers a new perspective on what happened, what it all meant, and what aspects continue to define American politics to this day. In many ways, we are still living in the age of Clinton.
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About the author
Michael Tomasky is a special correspondent for The Daily Beast and the editor in chief of Democracy, as well as a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He was previously executive editor of The American Prospect and the founding editor of Guardian America. He is the author of Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and Possible Resurrection of Progressive Politics in America and Hillary’s Turn: Inside Her Improbable, Victorious Senate Campaign. He lives outside Washington, DC.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., (1917–2007) was a renowned American historian, social critic, and prolific author of numerous books. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for The Age of Jackson and again in 1966 for A Thousand Days. He was twice winner of the National Book Award and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for History.
Sean Wilentz is a professor of American history at Princeton University. He is the author of The Age of Reagan and The Rise of American Democracy, which received the coveted Bancroft Prize. The historian-in-residence for Bob Dylan’s official Website, he has also received a Deems Taylor Award for musical commentary and a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan, Live 1964: The Concert at Philharmonic Hall.
After producing, directing, and engineering spoken word recordings for over twenty years, Paul Heitsch began narrating audiobooks in 2011, and has recorded many bestselling titles as both himself and under a pseudonym. A classically trained pianist, Paul is also a composer and sound designer, and is currently the director of music for the James Madison University School of Theatre and Dance, and an adjunct instructor for the JMU School of Music. He and his family live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia (although Chicago will always be his hometown).
