Hillary Rodham Clinton is known to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Yet few beyond her close friends and family have ever heard her account of her extraordinary journey. She writes with candor, humor and passion about her upbringing in suburban, middle-class America in the 1950s and her transformation from Goldwater Girl to student activist to controversial First Lady. Living History is her revealing memoir of life through the White House years. It is also her chronicle of living history with Bill Clinton, a thirty-year adventure in love and politics that survives personal betrayal, relentless partisan investigations and constant public scrutiny.

Hillary Rodham Clinton came of age during a time of tumultuous social and political change in America. Like many women of her generation, she grew up with choices and opportunities unknown to her mother or grandmother. She charted her own course through unexplored terrain — responding to the changing times and her own internal compass — and became an emblem for some and a lightning rod for others. Wife, mother, lawyer, advocate and international icon, she has lived through America's great political wars, from Watergate to Whitewater.

The only First Lady to play a major role in shaping domestic legislation, Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled tirelessly around the country to champion health care, expand economic and educational opportunity and promote the needs of children and families, and she crisscrossed the globe on behalf of women's rights, human rights and democracy. She redefined the position of First Lady and helped save the presidency from an unconstitutional, politically motivated impeachment. Intimate, powerful and inspiring, Living History captures the essence of one of the most remarkable women of our time and the challenging process by which she came to define herself and find her own voice — as a woman and as a formidable figure in American politics.

"Within the limitations of the genre, Clinton has produced a surprisingly engaging and, at points, even compelling book....[S]he provides enough of a peek behind the curtain to keep the pages turning." Ronald Brownstein, The Los Angeles Times

"Overall the book has the overprocessed taste of a stump speech, the calculated polish of a string of anecdotes to be delivered on a television chat show." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Unlike the vast majority of its critics, I read Living History all the way through. Occasionally it was rough going, but it wasn't awful. As the Times complained, it is an odd mix — a coming-of-age story, a memoir, a self-help book, a political tract....My change of heart about Hillary isn't all about the book....But the book helped. It made me like and understand her better. Oh, and more important: It made me hope she runs for president. And I think a lot of her critics — especially her female critics — who read the book will feel the same way....Sometimes Living History reminded me of a Jane Austen novel hinged on an unreliable female narrator — you can't trust everything she says, and yet she's capable of growth and insight on her amazing journey." Joan Walsh, Salon.com

"Living History is a solidly written, personal account from a major player in one of this country's most politically contentious periods. It is an important part of the record." Tom Walker, The Denver Post

"[A] smart, well-crafted memoir....Clinton comes off as eminently human in Living History....[I]t's going to be hard for any but the most partisan to ignore her grace, and her mix of self-confidence and the insecurities that seem to burden us all." John Mark Eberhart, The Kansas City Star

One of the most intelligent and influential women in America reflects on her eight years as First Lady of the United States in a revealing book that is personal, political, and news making. 32-pages of photos.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 and is the author of An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History; Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets and It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. She lives in Chappaqua, New York.

Contents

Author's Note

An American Story

University of Life

Class of '69

Yale

Bill Clinton

Arkansas Traveler

Little Rock

Campaign Odyssey

Inauguration

East Wing, West Wing

Health Care

The End of Something

Vince Foster

The Delivery Room

Whitewater

Independent Counsel

D-Day

Midterm Break

Conversations with Eleanor

Silence Is Not Spoken Here

Oklahoma City

Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Shutdown

A Time to Speak

War Zones

Prague Summer

Kitchen Table

Second Term

Into Africa

Vital Voices

Third Way

Soldiering On

Imagine the Future

August 1998

Impeachment

Waiting for Grace

Dare to Compete

New York

Acknowledgments

Key to Photographs

Index