Product Description

The truth about the most important woman in America

In Her Way, two Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative journalists deliver:

• Previously undisclosed details about the Clinton's multi-decade plan for powerincluding 8 years in the White House for Bill and 8 years for Hillary
  
• Never-before-revealed information about Hillary's involvement in her husband's campaigns - including cover-ups and the truth about Bill's draft record
  
• New details regarding Hillary's rivalry with Al Gore - and why it is likely to heat up.
  
• Provocative new information about Hillary's vote to authorize the Iraq War, and the steps she has taken to distance herself from that vote
  
• Revelations about Bill Clinton's role in Hillary's campaign and his surprising opinion of Barack Obama
  
• New details of Hillary's failure to adhere to Senate ethics rules, and what this says about her political empire

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She is one of the most influential and recognizable figures in our country, and perhaps the single most divisive individual in our political landscape. She has been the subject of both hagiography and vitriolic smear jobs. But although dozens of books have been written about her, none of them have come close to uncovering the real Hillary--personal, political, in all her complications.
Now, as she make her historic run for the presidency, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. bring us the first
comprehensive and balanced portrait of the most important woman in American politics. Drawing upon myriad new sources and previously undisclosed documents, Her Way shows us how, like many women of her generation, Hillary Rodham Clinton tempered a youthful idealism with the realities of corporate America and big-league politics. It takes readers from the dorm rooms at Wellesley to the courthouses of Arkansas and Washington; to the White House and role as First Lady like none other; inside the back rooms of the Senate, where she expertly navigates the political and legislative shoals; to her $4 million mansion in Washington, where she presides over an unparalleled fundraising machine; and to her war room, from which she orchestrates ferocious attacks against her critics. Throughout her career, she has been alternately helped and hindered by her marriage to Bill Clinton. Her Way unravels the mysteries of their political partnership--one of the most powerful and enigmatic in American history. It also explains why Hillary is such a polarizing figure. And more than any other book, it reveals what her ultimate hopes and ambitions are--for herself and for America.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240424 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-08
• Released on: 2007-06-08
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Gertz was one of the New York Times investigative reporters who started poking around the Whitewater case, but that doesn't mean readers should expect any four-alarm scandals from this unauthorized biography. Even with never-before-seen material from sources like White House counsel Vince Foster's notebooks, the worst Gertz and Van Natta (First Off the Tee) can say about Senator Clinton is that she may have padded her fees as a corporate lawyer and is lax about the required paperwork for hiring staff advisors. Their primary contention about Clinton-that she's a "meticulous architect of her persona" with "an almost scientific devotion to self-creation" and an unwillingness to admit to her mistakes-is hardly news, although a ballyhooed "secret pact," in which she and Bill planned from the earliest days of their marriage to maneuver him into the White House, may raise eyebrows. The profile in ambition is rich in anecdote, spending far more time on Clinton's Senate career than Carl Bernstein's bio. Far from a conservative hit job, their reportage tends to focus on public reaction to Clinton rather than to her politics, with the notable exception of her 2002 vote to support George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, including her vocal support of the theory that Saddam Hussein supported Al Qaeda, and her subsequent attempts to reinvent herself as an anti-war presidential candidate without refuting her previous position. The analysis of the early stages of her presidential campaign is somewhat hurried by necessity, but effectively supplements the balanced character study. Though they face stiff competition, Gertz and Van Natta's version of events is poised to gain traction.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
NEW YORK TIMES writers Gerth and Van Natta have teamed up to write an unauthorized biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton. While they point out that Clintons inner circle did not authorize the writing of the book, nor would they participate in it, there is nothing newly controversial here. Erik Singer narrates with a decidedly nonpartisan voice, keeping a neutral but interested tone as he takes listeners through the workings of the Rose law firm, the Whitewater scandal, the Monica Lewinsky fiasco, fund-raising issues, and Clintons Congressional record. The authors paint a fairly balanced portrait of the former first lady and current senator and presidential hopeful, focusing on her strengths and shortcomings with equal measure. Singer maintains that balance and keeps the book moving. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Since New York Times reporters Gerth and Van Natta's book on Hillary Clinton appears only a few weeks after Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge, it is difficult to review the new entry without comparing it to what came before. When put side by side, this book is the far inferior work. One reason why can be found in the authors' notes. Although Clinton was not interviewed for either work, Bernstein clearly had access to friends and family, which makes his book far richer. For instance, he takes several chapters to chronicle Hillary's formative years and includes an array of insightful quotes and commentary that helps explain what shaped her. Gerth and Van Natta wrap up the early years more quickly, using virtually nothing beyond familiar incidents and material from Clinton's autobiography. In later chapters, Her Way relies heavily on information from Kenneth Starr and others from the Office of the Independent Counsel, all of whom clearly still have an ax to grind, slanting the material. One of the "scoops" of this book is the (flimsily sourced) news that the Clintons made a pact decades ago that both would have eight-year presidential terms, making Hillary seem even more calculating than usual. In the final pages, the authors do admit that their subject has strength of will, but their tone, and most of what comes before, makes even this seem like an undesirable characteristic. Cooper, Ilene

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Customer Reviews

An Objective Overview
Pulitzer Prize-Winning `New York Times' reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr. analyze Hillary Clinton's personal and public life. With their investigative background they delve into her years in Arkansas, the White House, the U.S. Senate and as a 2008 presidential candidate. The authors conducted interviews and researched documents in order to objectively portray Clinton's legislative career, faith-based social activism, and marriage. Though the book is powerfully written, there is not much new information shared if you have been keeping up with all the books released on the Clinton's. What makes this book different is that is written by two writers of mainstream press.

Gerth and Van Natta are not the most neutral of guides
The prologue to Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.'s book ends with two ominous-sounding sentences: "For decades, Hillary and Bill Clinton, along with a core group of friends and supporters, have told one story. Now it is time for another."

Ouch! That tone of literary voice will certainly set off alarm bells among Hillary Rodham Clinton's legions of admirers. Gerth and Van Natta are both veteran hard-nosed journalistic hands. Jeff Gerth was the point man at the New York Times in stirring up the Whitewater controversy that caused the Clintons incredible trouble before it blew over with no charges against them. They know where and how to dig for facts and underlying documentation. In this book they may acknowledge Hillary's strengths and strong points, but they seem mainly intent on cutting her down to size as her bid for the presidency picks up steam.

HER WAY is not intended as a comprehensive Hillary biography, though it does adequately cover the basics of her early years. It is more a study of her methods of political operation and an effort to probe her way of thinking about the world, about politics and about herself. The portrait that emerges is that of a powerful and ambitious woman who brooks no opposition, never admits a mistake, carefully constructs a public image that may or may not reflect her real views and tries to ignore or suppress inconvenient facts that may undermine that public persona. As the book ends, the authors wonder who the "authentic" Hillary Clinton may be. It is certainly a question worth asking. They don't seem to know the answer and neither does the reader.

Gerth and Van Natta dutifully stir up the cold ashes of Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster's death, Hillary's commodities trading fortunes, her work for the Rose law firm in Arkansas and --- of course --- Monica Lewinsky. Their research is thorough, but there is a snide quality to their constant tendency to find some angle, fact or interpretation that reflects unfavorably on their subject. (Example: If Hillary sidesteps a reporter's question about support for improved auto fuel-efficiency standards, they add gratuitously, "Michigan is an important primary state, after all.")

For purposes of the upcoming presidential campaign, the most relevant part of this book is its detailed account of how Hillary arrived at --- and subsequently tried to justify --- her vote for the Iraq war powers resolution. This will surely be the deciding factor for a large contingent of voters in 2008 if she is the nominee. Gerth and Van Natta show that when Iraq first became a contentious issue she seemed to side solidly with President Bush, only drifting off toward hardnosed opposition as the strength of antiwar sentiment began to build. This is a road traveled by a fair number of senators in recent years, but the authors are quick indeed to question Hillary's motives and paint her as opportunistic. They fault her for being one of 94 senators who did not read the full classified text of the famous National Intelligence Estimate that cast doubt on the administration's rationale for invading Iraq. Among those 94 members were several others who later became candidates for President.

The overall impression created by this book is that two Hillary Clintons exist --- one a carefully airbushed and spin-doctored public woman, the other a real person driven by "raw political ambition" who will do or say anything, crush any opponent and seize upon any issue to get her where she wants to go.

That may be true, but we just don't know yet. Well, we have 16 months to find out --- and I'm not sure that Gerth and Van Natta are the most neutral of guides for the journey. They demonstrate that they "know" Hillary Clinton better than you and I do, but their own motives are not much clearer than hers.

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The book leaves out the old stuff and focuses more on her work as a Senator
This is the book to read if you want some straight reporting on Hillary's life and career. It covers everything from her youth through 2006 without ever become an attack piece or hagiography. A bit more than a third of the book is devoted to her work as a candidate and then as the junior Senator from New York.

At first, I found the early portions of the book unsatisfactory because the authors seem to be giving her every benefit of the doubt. For example, on page 79 they try to say that Hillary's work at the notoriously leftist Legal Services Corporation doesn't mean Hillary holds leftist values. The evidence? A quote from the ultra-extreme leftist Mickey Kantor saying, "From my perspective, she was very moderate." OK. He admits he was a flamethrower, why does that necessarily make Hillary not a leftist? They also minimize the influence of Saul Alinsky on her career and manner of politics or even that Alinsky was much more than "a colorful Chicago community activist" (pg 33).

The book also avoids the well known scandals almost completely. Oh, the authors go over Whitewater, the options trading, and so on, but Hillary always gets a pass. For example, the problem with the options trading wasn't the fantastic series of trades, but that she was allowed to be under margin. They got a certificate from someone who said that options can payoff big, so Hillary gets a pass. Right. More believable would have been showing a similarly fantastic series of trades by anyone else. Ever. In the history of trading options.

But as I was getting worked up over the lack of discussion over the FBI files and so on, I finally realized what the I think the authors are doing. They don't want the book to get bogged down in the old muck. When they have solid and incontrovertible evidence about the Rose billing records, they present it. The case they slowly build is the fact that Hillary has a very poor track record in making good choices. Her instincts for secrecy and stonewalling, her willingness to misstate the facts, her tin ear for public relations, and sense of entitlement and arrogance all combine to demonstrate the kind of President she would be. In my mind, it adds up to a disqualification. However, the authors don't say that and others pre-disposed to praise her will likely conclude differently.

The authors are exquisite on displaying Hillary's maneuvering on 9/11, the Iraq war, and the way her political needs of the moment cause her to talk falsely about facts that are on the record and how hard she works to keep other facts from ever getting on the record or from being brought to public attention. This is the book's strongest material. It is this material that is most relevant to her run for President and I finally came to agree with the authors' choice to emphasize it and leave the old stuff out.

Whether you are for, against, or indifferent to Hillary, she is a major force in our present politics and you would do well to learn more about her. This book is among the best of the books written about her. I think it is the most relevant to her run for President.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI