A WOMAN IN CHARGE: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton Paperback – Illustrated, January 8, 2008

I belong to a book club and we had a free choice of First Ladies, this was my choice. Mrs. Clinton is someone that I have long admired as the person who our very well run the country, run the world, she's tough, but perceptive of those around her and has an openness about her that makes you instantly trust her. I met Hilary on a very cold early dawn morning in Washington DC. I was one of the volunteers with "The Quilt" when it came to Washington, and we had a ceremony before the sunrise to open it up and be ready for the display on the Mall, the AIDS quilt is a magnificent tribute to all who have died from this disease. We were not expecting them but shortly after arrival the Clintons and the Gores arrived with no fanfare and seemingly no secret service although I am sure they were lurking somewhere. Mrs Clinton was so at ease and made the volunteers feel the same way, she talked to all of us, as did the President, and the Gores. But again that's another story, but the book gives an insight that many of us don't know about Hilary, she did not have the wonderful childhood that we all thought she did in fact, what she considered the norm would have made many of us turn inward and not want to face the world, life or any adversity. A women of strong commitment and courage, she's a willow, she can and does bend but at a the same time maintains her own advocacy. She loves her family with a ferocity tat makes a mother bear someone to be wary of. From the book I got that she docent' stand fools well which is not to say she doesn't like to debate she does. I could go on but I won'. Bottom line, I loved the book, I want to read it again as I think its the kind of book that you need to, and you will find many things you missed the first time around. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a women that I admire and I hope makes another run for the Presidency, we need her her in the White house again but this time as The Women in Charge. I think the country is ready for it.

I decided to read this, finally, because I felt I had to delve more deeply into my own biases against Clinton, if only to remind myself of where they started and, perhaps, correct for some of them. From that standpoint, the book did a good job. Bernstein told me a lot I did not know about Clinton's years before she met Bill, her miserably nasty (yes!), negative father and long-suffering mother, her teenage consciousness-raising re: race from her minister, her demonstrated talent for mediating between contentious factions in college. That humanized her a lot for me. As well, Bernstein's coverage of her First Lady years reminded me of the mistakes she made -- and, though Bernstein is not interested in defending Clinton, he did help me to understand the inexperience and frustrations -- both marital and political -- that fueled those mistakes. Where he is weakest, due in part to his age, gender, and own attitudes, is in understanding (and, thus, explaining) why/how a brilliant, ambitious woman in the 1970's would choose to hitch her wagon to a brilliant, ambitious man instead of go it alone. I am Clinton's age so I "get" that better than Bernstein does. I also think he could do a better job of conveying her genuine love for him and could explaining the complex reasons for her inability to quit him. Those of us who have been married for decades "get" that better than Bernstein, whose marital and sexual history may not make him the best biographer for Clinton ... tho he does do his signature dogged reporting. His writing is meh. I did, however, come away with a much greater understanding of my own history with Clinton: her worst era was as First Lady, due to aforementioned inexperience and the inherent frustration of trying to live out your own ambitions and ideas through another person. Her less-rigid, less-controlling, more open and cooperative, more politically effective years have been, whoa, when she was acting on her own. Clinton has made mistakes in those years, yes, particularly with Clinton Global Foundations -- again, we must look at the marriage to understand that. But Bernstein helped me see her life in chapters and see how much she grew AFTER her First Lady years when, yes, she was the secretive, tight-ass who folks hate. Get over it. She has changed. We should, too.

This is the first biography of Hillary Clinton that I have read, and I read it because I wanted to "get to know" her before the election. I have to admit she wasn't my first choice for the Democratic nomination but after reading this book I feel comfortable supporting her. Bernstein delivers what I believe to be a mostly fair-handed portrait of Secretary Clinton, pointing out her flaws as well as the difficulty of the circumstances she faced as First Lady. While I find Bernstein's writing style far from inspiring and even sloppy at times he does convey Secretary Clinton as a woman who has often been isolated by her own choice when it comes to seeking support for policy initiatives. She has at times worked with an inner circle of supporters, who really seem to be the troops in the battle for change that she leads. It is clear from Bernstein's book that Secretary Clinton has made numerous mistakes in trying to achieve her political goals -- what politician hasn't -- but it is equally clear that over time she has learned from those mistakes as her approach to her election to the Senate exemplifies. I was not aware of the role her faith plays in her career. This seems to give her more depth than the general public might think in developing policy ideas. Will she make a perfect President? No, no one can. After reading "A Woman in Charge," though, I believe that she can make a very good President based on her past political experience and her ability to learn from the unsuccessful strategies she attempted in some of her previous political endeavors. The book was written nearly ten years ago and therefore does not address the current campaign for the presidency. Instead of the hatred Hillary Clinton's name seems to inspire these days, I think the woman deserves a chance to lead this country. She has certainly earned my respect.

Not as good as Living History or Hard choices, possibly more factually correct, but hard going to read. Print very small find your best reading glasses if you buy this

Excellent, as new. I had hoped it would have been the 'larger' sized paperback but no to worry!

This is the first book about Hilary Clinton that I have read, and as I am neither a Republican or a Democrat (or an American) my interest in this book is purely academical. Further, Hilary seems to inspire intense emotions - both for and against her - so some people may find the book is neither too critical or or too favorable. I find it fairly objective, tending towards the sympathetic.Bernstein quotes extensively from Hilary's main memoir,  Living History ; most of the chapters open with a quote from this book.Bernstein, one of the journalists who worked on the Watergate scandal, weaves a fairly interesting narrative through Hilary's early life, her time at Little Rock as Bill Clinton's wife when he was governor, the period as First Lady, and on to her time as a senator.The book also reveals how destructive, and largely counter-productive Washington politics is. One critic of Hillary, New Gingrich, claimed of the then First Lady, "Her thoughts sound a lot like Karl Marx. She hangs around with a lot of Marxists. All her friends are Marxists."This is pure nonsense. Based on this quote we could say about Gingrich that he is an idiot who does not think his opinions through; he hangs around with a lot of idiots. Can anyone dispute this? I am no fan of Hilary, but it's hard to think of either Bill Clinton and her as Marxists. Idealistic and egotistical maybe, but never Marxists.Hilary does like to force her opinions on people. As one commentator put it about Hillary, "That's what she thrives on more than anything - the battle." But battles come become expensive and time-consuming. Much of her time as First Lady seemed to be consumed by largely avoidable battles.Hillary also thinks she is better than most people, "She thinks that she should be telling the 'little people' how to live... She talks sometimes as if she's explaining something to a third grade class." Mind you, when opponents, like Newt Gingrich display the same lack of maturity as third graders then her actions may be more forgivable.And Hillary never liked opposition. She felt "that given responsibility and power [which she was given] she could solve virtually any problem she applied to by dint of sheer force of will, intellect, study and hard work."Of course, the one major problem she couldn't solve was Bill's womanizing!Having read several books on "important" political leaders like George Bush, Tony Blair and other a few others, the main subject that seems to consume them is their view that history should view them sympathetically.Bush stated in  Decision Points  that he wrote the book (or a ghost writer did!) so that historians could get a better perspective of his presidency; Tony Blair gave us  A Journey  and was obsessed with his "legacy"; while Hilary gave us  Living History .These people are just public servants, or that is what they are employed to be. We could all be living history (our lives in other words) much more productively if these people stopped being consumed by their own self-importance and actually got on with their jobs. And in the case of Newt Gingrich, he should just grow up! Living HistoryDecision PointsA JourneyLiving History

El libro me ha parecido ameno y cronológicamente muy bien contado. Las reseñas muestran que la elaboración ha sido muy buen documentada, tanto haciendo alusión a libros escritos por la propia HRC como las entrevistas a personas muy cercanas a ella, a lo largo de toda su vida. Me ha gustado mucho este libro.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot about Hillary Clinton I didn't know. It is well written and interesting and I would highly recommend it.