The biography of Bill Clinton as told by 169 of the friends, colleagues, and rivals who know him best Though Bill Clinton has been out of office since 2001, public fascination with him continues unabated. Many books about Clinton hav
Michael Takiff is an independent scholar and oral historian whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Salon. He is the author of Brave Men, Gentle Heroes: American Fathers and Sons in World War II and Vietnam.
What People are Saying About This
Lewis L. Gould
This is an ambitious and impressive work. Takiff has taken on a daunting subject and done very well with it.(Lewis L. Gould, University of Texas at Austin)
Nigel Hamilton
"Packed with fascinating personal perspective and testimony, Michael Takiff's A Complicated Man wholly justifies its title. The book is far more than a kaleidoscopic oral biography of President Bill Clinton. Aspect by aspect, it guides us through the struggles of postmodern America, as the most ambitious baby boomer of his generation seeks to modernize the Democratic Party—and, as in a Greek drama, is fated to be destroyed. Veritably, an all-American saga, with a cast of thousands—favorable and unfavorable.(Nigel Hamilton, author of American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush)
Rick Perlstein
This volume is an outstanding accomplishment. The Clinton that emerges is remarkably rich and three-dimensional: a protean and mercurial figure as likely to dazzle as he is to disappoint; his own worst enemy and his own best resource; a man of extraordinarily intense emotional need and extraordinarily impressive intellect and commitment. A historic contribution to the biographical record which will stand for generations.(Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America)
John Milton Cooper
This book is perfectly titled. Bill Clinton was and is, indeed, 'a complicated man,' one of the three greatest natural politicians among twentieth-century presidents, along with FDR and LBJ, but also strangely flawed. These testimonies by people who knew him well throughout his life and career delve into both the strengths and weaknesses of this fascinating figure.(John Milton Cooper, author of The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt)
