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Bill and Hillary : the politics of the personal / William H. Chafe.

by Chafe, William H., 1942-

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New York : Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2012.

Clinton, Bill, 1946-

Clinton, Hillary Rodham.

Presidents -- United States -- Biography.

Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography.

United States -- Politics and government -- 1993-2001.

9780809094653 (alk. paper)

0809094657 (alk. paper)

x, 387 p. ; 24 cm.

Bill Clinton: the early years -- Hillary Rodham: the early years -- Oxford and the draft: a test of character -- Hillary and Bill at Yale: two destinies intersect -- The Arkansas years, part one: 1973-1980 -- The Arkansas years, part two: 1980-1991 -- "There is a place called Hope" -- The first year -- The health care debacle and the emergence of Kenneth Starr -- Comeback number three -- The roller coaster plummets -- Survival and a new beginning -- What if?

In previous works the author has written powerfully about the relationship between personality and politics. This book represents the culmination of this approach to political history. Having written widely on civil rights and women's history, the author brings the themes of all his scholarship together in this book about the Clintons' "co-presidency," two people committed to both sex and race equality. From the beginning, he argues, the personal chemistry between the Clintons shaped definitively their political careers. She was instrumental in his triumphs as Arkansas governor and "saved" his presidential candidacy by standing with him during the Gennifer Flowers sex scandal. He responded by delegating presidential powers to her that no other First Lady had ever exercised. Often tempestuous, their relationship had as many lows as it did highs, but the trajectory of the Clintons' political lives can only be understood through the prism of their personal relationship. Full of insights about health care, Kenneth Starr, and welfare reform, this work gives texture and depth to the Clintons' lives, including the extent to which the Lewinsky scandal finally freed Hillary to become a politician in her own right and return to the consensus reformer she had been in college and law school.

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