
Inside the Clinton White House
An Oral History
Russell L. Riley(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 12. December 2016
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-0-19-060546-9 (ISBN)
Description
The inner life of every White House is veiled in mystery. Only a select few partake in the sensitive discussions of the Oval Office or the casual banter about high policy and low politics conducted over the engine roar of Air Force One. The privilege of the president's confidence depends on the confidentiality of such exchanges while the president's term endures. Inside the Clinton White House, however, provides a front-row seat to that previously unknown history of the 42nd presidency.
In the decade after Bill Clinton left the White House, scores of his political advisors, senior White House staff, and cabinet officials recorded oral history interviews with scholars working with the acclaimed Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. The contents of these interviews are published for the first time in this volume, selected and edited by Russell Riley, co-chair of the Oral History Program.
The portraite of the Clinton presidency provided here is based on some 400 hours of conversations with more than sixty people. These interviews track Bill Clinton's emergence as a national political figure with the New Democrat movement, take the reader inside the hectic 1992 campaign, and then detail the ups and downs of life inside the Clinton White House as experienced by those who were there. Extended sections of the book are devoted to domestic policy (including reforms of the health care and welfare systems), foreign policy (including military interventions in Haiti and the Balkans), politics in the Clinton years (including impeachment), and the key personalities of the time (including chapters on Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton). These candid spoken accounts--history "with the bark off" in Lyndon Johnson's phrase--add color and nuance to our understanding of Bill Clinton and his administration, sometimes confirming and sometimes upending the conventional wisdom.
In the decade after Bill Clinton left the White House, scores of his political advisors, senior White House staff, and cabinet officials recorded oral history interviews with scholars working with the acclaimed Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. The contents of these interviews are published for the first time in this volume, selected and edited by Russell Riley, co-chair of the Oral History Program.
The portraite of the Clinton presidency provided here is based on some 400 hours of conversations with more than sixty people. These interviews track Bill Clinton's emergence as a national political figure with the New Democrat movement, take the reader inside the hectic 1992 campaign, and then detail the ups and downs of life inside the Clinton White House as experienced by those who were there. Extended sections of the book are devoted to domestic policy (including reforms of the health care and welfare systems), foreign policy (including military interventions in Haiti and the Balkans), politics in the Clinton years (including impeachment), and the key personalities of the time (including chapters on Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton). These candid spoken accounts--history "with the bark off" in Lyndon Johnson's phrase--add color and nuance to our understanding of Bill Clinton and his administration, sometimes confirming and sometimes upending the conventional wisdom.
Reviews / Votes
[A] masterful history of the White House told from the perspective of those who were there. Russell Riley has collated countless hours of elite interviewing into a vivid and eminently useful narrative history of the presidency of Bill Clinton... The frankness of the text combined with Riley's gift for narrative and structure make this book a vital contribution to the literature not only on William Jefferson Clinton, but also on presidential politics and oral history, as well * Journal of Politics *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
848 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-060546-9 (9780190605469)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2016
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download

E-Book
09/2016
1st Edition
Oxford University Press
€39.99
Available for download
Person
Russell L. Riley is Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, where he has conducted nearly 300 oral history interviews with senior officials from every administration since Jimmy Carter's. He is the author and editor of several books on the American presidency, including The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality: Nation-Keeping from 1831 to 1965 and The President's Words: Speeches and Speechwriting in the Modern White House.
Author
Associate Professor and Co-Chair, Presidential Oral History ProgramAssociate Professor and Co-Chair, Presidential Oral History Program, Miller Center, University of Virginia
Content
Preface to the Revised Edition
Preface
Part I: Beginnings
Chapter 1: The Man Who Would be President: Prelude to the White House
Chapter 2: The Decision
Chapter 3: The Announcement & Three Georgetown Speeches
Chapter 4: Staffing the Campaign
Chapter 5: The New Hampshire Primary: Vertigo
Chapter 6: Competitors, Issues & Style
Chapter 7: Getting Ready for the General Election: The Manhattan Project and Choosing Gore
Chapter 8: The Democratic National Convention and the Bus Tour
Chapter 9: The General Election Campaign-Clinton vs. George H. W. Bush
Chapter 10: The View from the Other Side
Chapter 11: The Transition to Governing
Part II: Domestic and Economic Policy
Chapter 12: Out of the Gate: Deciding on What to Do First
Chapter 13: The 1993 Budget and the Stimulus Package
Chapter 14: NAFTA
Chapter 15: Healthcare
Chapter 16: Welfare Reform
Chapter 17: On Other Domestic and Economic Issues
Part III: Foreign Policy
Chapter 18: A New Foreign Policy for a New World Order
Chapter 19: Haiti
Chapter 20: Africa
Chapter 21: The Balkans
Chapter 22: Northern Ireland
Chapter 23: Other Foreign Policy Issues
Chapter 24: Clinton with Foreign Leaders
Part IV: Politics and the Clinton White House
Chapter 25: Inside the Washington Community
Chapter 26: Republican Revolution and Recovery
Chapter 27: The Reelection and Productive Middle Years, 1996-97
Chapter 28: Scandals-and Impeachment
Part V: People
Chapter 29: Clinton's Intellect
Chapter 30: Clinton's Political Talents and Operating Style
Chapter 31: The Man Who Was President
Chapter 32: Gore
Chapter 33: Hillary
Chapter 34: Staff
Chapter 35: Stories
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 36: Observations on the Clinton Legacy: "A Tale of Two Presidencies"
Preface
Part I: Beginnings
Chapter 1: The Man Who Would be President: Prelude to the White House
Chapter 2: The Decision
Chapter 3: The Announcement & Three Georgetown Speeches
Chapter 4: Staffing the Campaign
Chapter 5: The New Hampshire Primary: Vertigo
Chapter 6: Competitors, Issues & Style
Chapter 7: Getting Ready for the General Election: The Manhattan Project and Choosing Gore
Chapter 8: The Democratic National Convention and the Bus Tour
Chapter 9: The General Election Campaign-Clinton vs. George H. W. Bush
Chapter 10: The View from the Other Side
Chapter 11: The Transition to Governing
Part II: Domestic and Economic Policy
Chapter 12: Out of the Gate: Deciding on What to Do First
Chapter 13: The 1993 Budget and the Stimulus Package
Chapter 14: NAFTA
Chapter 15: Healthcare
Chapter 16: Welfare Reform
Chapter 17: On Other Domestic and Economic Issues
Part III: Foreign Policy
Chapter 18: A New Foreign Policy for a New World Order
Chapter 19: Haiti
Chapter 20: Africa
Chapter 21: The Balkans
Chapter 22: Northern Ireland
Chapter 23: Other Foreign Policy Issues
Chapter 24: Clinton with Foreign Leaders
Part IV: Politics and the Clinton White House
Chapter 25: Inside the Washington Community
Chapter 26: Republican Revolution and Recovery
Chapter 27: The Reelection and Productive Middle Years, 1996-97
Chapter 28: Scandals-and Impeachment
Part V: People
Chapter 29: Clinton's Intellect
Chapter 30: Clinton's Political Talents and Operating Style
Chapter 31: The Man Who Was President
Chapter 32: Gore
Chapter 33: Hillary
Chapter 34: Staff
Chapter 35: Stories
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 36: Observations on the Clinton Legacy: "A Tale of Two Presidencies"