A Woman in Charge

Last updated

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton
Author Carl Bernstein
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Hillary Rodham Clinton
Genre Biography
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
June 5, 2007
Media typeHardcover
Pages640

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton is a biography of United States Senator and former First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, that was written by Carl Bernstein and published on June 5, 2007, by Alfred A. Knopf.

Contents

Background

Bernstein spent eight years working on the book. [1] He is said to have interviewed around 200 people in connection with his research. [1] [2] He did not receive cooperation from the Clintons for the project. [2]

The existence of the work was first announced by publisher Knopf on April 23, 2007, with a scheduled publication date of June 19, 2007. [1]

The book came out at the same time as another mainstream biography, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.'s Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton . [3] The respective publishers both moved up the release dates of their books in the act of competition, [3] with in particular the Gerth-Van Natta work getting moved up from August; [4] [5] in the end the Bernstein book came out first by three days. [6]

Beyond scheduling, there was some trash talking between the publishers: the editor in chief of Little, Brown, which was putting out Her Way, made reference to how Knopf had published Bill Clinton's quite successful autobiography My Life and expressed doubt as to how "objective and critical Knopf can be about Hillary when it's also publishing Bill." [5] Knopf's editor said in response, "The editorial integrity of this (publishing) house speaks for itself. It's ludicrous for Little, Brown to suggest that. They should be very careful if they're going down that road." [5] The Little, Brown editor said. "We [feel] confident we [can] go up against [Bernstein]", while the Knopf editor said that Little, Brown's "desire to link to our publication is understandable, especially since Bernstein will create a tidal wave of interest. They hope a rising tide raises all boats. But ... their book could drown in our wake." [5]

Political impacts

The book was published while Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign was underway. According to reviewers at The Washington Post , the Clinton campaign was "nervous" about new revelations from this or the Gerth-Van Natta book. [3] The Clintons had a less negative feeling about Bernstein's effort, given that they had a special antipathy towards Her Way due to Gerth's role in reporting the Whitewater scandal, the controversy of which had bedeviled them for much of the Bill Clinton administration. [6] As for the Bernstein book's title, the Boston Globe wrote that "She's not in charge yet, of course, but perhaps the title is meant to suggest that she is a take-charge woman." [1]

Once the books came out, while there were many items of interest, there were no blockbusters that would constitute political damage. [7] A Clinton spokesman said, "Is it possible to be quoted yawning?" and that, "these books are nothing more than cash for rehash." [3] Media Matters for America had no major objections to it compared to Her Way, [8] aside from criticizing Bernstein on some grounds, such as falsely claiming during interviews for the book that he had revealed that Clinton had failed the D. C. Bar Exam, when in fact she had revealed it herself four years prior. [9]

The general consensus was that while the Gerth-Van Natta book was a little on the negative side towards its subject, the Bernstein effort was a little on the positive side, notwithstanding that both were mainstream works. [6] As The Washington Post wrote, "Unlike many harsh books about Clinton written by ideological enemies, the two new volumes come from long-established writers backed by major publishing houses and could be harder to dismiss." [3]

Critical response

Many critics reviewed this and the Gerth-Van Natta book in tandem. [2] [3] [10] Reviews for A Woman in Charge were generally mixed-to-positive. [7]

Reviewing the book for The New York Times , historian Robert Dallek asserted that the book presents "a [reasonably] balanced and convincing picture" of Clinton ... [but] also has its limitations. ... Bernstein includes too much recounting of familiar details about the Clintons' past." [10] He concluded that the Bernstein work was more neutral than the more negatively framed Gerth-Van Natta account. [10]

Professor Linda Colley of the London Review of Books said that the book was "well-written" and "considered", especially in contrast to the Gerth-Van Natta rival. [2] Several reviewers noted that A Woman in Charge had next to nothing about Clinton's Senate career. [7] The Rocky Mountain News wrote that "Carl Bernstein's much-hyped unauthorized biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, A Woman in Charge, is neither a bomb nor a bombshell ... he disappoints [in] devoting about 20 pages to her years in the U.S. Senate and a scant three pages to her decision to run for president. It's as if he lost steam in his eight-year labor and then rushed to print as she became a presidential front-runner." [7]

The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert saw Bernstein as trying to prove that Clinton is "really no worse than you think she is. ... Even as he chronicles one fabulous misstep after another, he describes the former First Lady as 'well-intentioned' and 'principled,' motivated by deep religious faith and a passionate sense of caring." [11] Kolbert illustrated with a case in point, when in pointed contrast to Gerth-Van Natta, Bernstein writes that Whitewater was "overblown almost from the moment The New York Times first wrote about it." [11]

Promotion and sales

Knopf had initially announced a first printing of 350,000 copies. [1] As publication actually approached this was revised to a print run of 275,000. [3]

Initial sales of the book were quite modest, with Nielsen BookScan reporting 25,000 copies sold in its first 13 days (about three times what the Gerth-Van Natta book was doing but far less than Clinton's 2003 autobiography Living History ). [6] It appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List for three weeks, debuting at #7 for the week of June 24, falling to #13 the next week, and spending its last week on the chart at #14 for July 8. [12]

A CBS News end-of-year survey of publishing "hits and misses" included A Woman in Charge in the "miss" category and implied that its total sales were somewhere in the range of perhaps 55,000–65,000 copies. [13] Likely its sales were impinged at least somewhat by the existence of the rival Gerth-Van Natta work, [4] but in any case fell far short of the size of the initial printing. Despite all the talk up front, the book had not been the major best seller that the publisher had been expecting. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Bernstein</span> American journalist (born 1944)

Carl Milton Bernstein is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by longtime journalism figure Gene Roberts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Law Firm</span> American law firm

Rose Law Firm is an American law firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

<i>Living History</i> (book) 2003 book by Hillary Clinton

Living History is a 2003 memoir by Hillary Clinton. It was written when she was a sitting Senator from New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Howell Rodham</span> American homemaker and mother of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Dorothy Emma Rodham was an American homemaker and the mother of former First Lady, U.S. Senator, United States Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This is a list of books and scholarly articles by and about Hillary Clinton, as well as columns by her.

Don Van Natta Jr. is an American journalist, writer and broadcaster. He is an investigative reporter for ESPN, since January 2012, and the host and executive producer of “Backstory,” an ESPN docuseries. He previously worked for 16 years as an investigative correspondent at The New York Times, where he was a member of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Clinton</span> American politician and diplomat (born 1947)

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 67th United States secretary of state under president Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and as the first lady of the United States as the wife of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party; Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College vote, thereby losing the election to Donald Trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States Senate election in New York</span> Election for the U.S. Senate

In the United States Senate election held in the State of New York on November 7, 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then First Lady of the United States and the first First Lady to run for political office, defeated U.S. Representative Rick Lazio. The general election coincided with the U.S. presidential election.

Jeff Gerth is an American former investigative reporter for The New York Times who has written lengthy, probing stories that drew both praise and criticism. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for covering the transfer of American satellite-launch technology to China. He broke stories about the Whitewater controversy and the Chinese scientist Wen Ho Lee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Rodham senior thesis</span>

In 1969, Hillary Rodham wrote a 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College about the views advocated by community organizer Saul Alinsky, titled "There Is Only the Fight . . . ": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.

In 1978 and 1979, lawyer and First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Rodham Clinton engaged in a series of trades of cattle futures contracts. Her initial $1,000 investment had generated nearly $100,000, when she stopped trading after ten months. In 1994, after Clinton had become First Lady of the United States, the trading became the subject of considerable controversy regarding the likelihood of such a spectacular rate of return, possible conflict of interest, and allegations of disguised bribery. It was suspected by commentators that the profits were in fact allocations to her of profits from unrelated large block trades managed by her investment advisor James Blair, outside counsel to Tyson Foods, Arkansas' largest employer, in an attempt to gain influence with her husband Bill Clinton, then Attorney General of Arkansas.

Hillaryland was the self-designated name of a group of core advisors to Hillary Clinton, when she was First Lady of the United States and again when, as United States Senator, she was one of the Democratic Party candidates for President in the 2008 U.S. election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">US Senate career of Hillary Clinton</span> Overview of Hillary Clintons United States Senate career

Hillary Rodham Clinton served as a United States senator from New York from January 3, 2001 to January 21, 2009. She won the United States Senate election in New York, 2000 and the United States Senate election in New York, 2006. Clinton resigned from the Senate on January 21, 2009 to become United States Secretary of State for the Obama Administration.

<i>Obama: From Promise to Power</i> Book by David Mendell

Obama: From Promise to Power is a 2007 political biography, written by David Mendell, of Barack Obama from his childhood to the announcement of his candidacy for president of the United States. The book focuses on Obama's fast rise from obscurity to the national stage, portraying it not as an unplanned phenomenon but rather as the result of a carefully crafted and calculated plan by an ambitious man. Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter, had covered Obama since the beginning of his campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. The book utilizes both first-hand research and a wide range of interviews with Obama's aides, mentors, political adversaries, and family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public image of Hillary Clinton</span>

The cultural and political image of Hillary Clinton has been explored since the early 1990s, when her husband Bill Clinton launched his presidential campaign, and has continued to draw broad public attention during her time as First Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator from New York, 67th United States Secretary of State, and the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton is an investigative biography about United States Senator, and former First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton that was written by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. and published on June 8, 2007, by Little, Brown and Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal career of Hillary Clinton</span>

Following her graduation from Yale Law School until becoming first lady of the United States in 1993, Hillary Clinton practiced law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Clinton's tenure as First Lady of the United States</span>

Hillary Clinton served as the first lady of the United States from 1993 until 2001, during the presidency of her husband Bill Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Clinton's tenures as First Lady of Arkansas</span>

During her husband's first governorship, she was known as Hillary Rodham. However, in his second governorship, she made use of the name Hillary Rodham Clinton.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 ""A Woman in Charge," maybe - Off the Shelf".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Colley, Linda (August 16, 2007). "Linda Colley reviews 'A Woman in Charge' by Carl Bernstein and 'Hillary Clinton: Her Way' by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta". London Review of Books. 29 (16). Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Baker, Peter; Solomon, John (May 25, 2007). "Books Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton". The Washington Post . Retrieved October 27, 2016. Washington Post.
  4. 1 2 Donadio, Rachel (February 3, 2008). "Essay - Why Does It Still Take So Long to Publish a Book?". The New York Times.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Hillary books vie for votes - USATODAY.com". usatoday30.usatoday.com.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Rainey, James (June 23, 2007). "Not many votes for Clinton bio". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Reviews of books on Hillary Clinton". Books Blog. timesunion. June 10, 2007. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  8. ↑ Research (May 30, 2007). "Jeff Gerth, meet Judith Miller". Media Matters for America . Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  9. ↑ "On Today, Bernstein omitted key fact in purported disclosure of Clinton's D.C. bar exam failure: It's not news". Media Matters for America . October 10, 2007.
  10. 1 2 3 Robert Dallek (June 5, 2007). "Book Review: Her Way and A Woman in Charge". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Kolbert, Elizabeth (June 4, 2007). "The Lady Vanishes". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  12. ↑ http://www.hawes.com/2007/2007.htm Hawes Publications Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 2007
  13. ↑ Italie, Hillel (December 18, 2007). "Books: Hits And Misses In 2007". CBS News. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.