About this item
Though Bill Clinton has been out of office since 2001, public fascination with him continues unabated.Many books about Clinton have been published in recent years, but shockingly, no single-volume biography covers the full scope of Clintons life from the cradle to the present day, not even Clintons own account, My Life. More troubling still, books on Clinton have tended to be highly polarized, casting the former president in an overly positive or negative light.In this, the first complete oral history of Clintons life, historian Michael Takiff presents the first truly balanced book on one of our nations most controversial and fascinating presidents. Through more than 150 chronologically arranged interviews with key figures including Bob Dole, James Carville, and Tom Brokaw, among many others, A Complicated Man goes far beyond the well-worn party-line territory to capture the larger-than-life essence of Clinton the man.
About the Author
Believe it or not, before turning to writing about history and politics full-time, I spent 10 years as a stand-up comic. Based at the Comic Strip in NYC, I toured the country, from Seattle to Iowa City, from Chicago to Corpus Christi, and countless points in between.For A Complicated Man I interviewed 171 people who knew Bill Clinton -- from the cousin who took him to the Saturday westerns in Hope, Arkansas, to a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff; from classmates at every stage of his education to familiar journalists like Sam Donaldson and Tom Brokaw; as well as over two dozen current and former members of Congress, from Democrats like Barney Frank and Dale Bumpers to Republicans like Bob Dole and the late Henry Hyde. I even met the publisher of Hustler magazine, Larry Flynt.For a lifelong political junkie like me, it was fascinating and great fun. And I like to think that those words also describe the book.If you're interested, check out my Twitter feed: @MichaelTakiff.Thank you for taking the time to look at this page.MT
