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Summary: A first step to understanding the man from Arkansas
Review: President Clinton was and still is a perplexing figure. He was a prudent and skillful political leader yet personally self-indulgent, and sometimes disorganized as a manager of the White House. David Maraniss' "First in His Class" is a useful first step toward understanding those contradictions. To Mr. Maraniss, Bill Clinton is a representative Southern man, as well as a representative baby boomer. The biography (to date the best one done on Bill Clinton) concentrates on those two factors in his life and career. The book is also a Rohrshach test of sorts. Those who dislike the former president will see his early life as "the man from Hot Springs" as a foreshadowing of his freewheeling and profligate appetites. Those who admire Bill Clinton will look at the development of his conscience as he responds to the civil rights revolution and the Vietnam War, and see a young man who seriously wrestled with the biggest questions of his times, and made moral and just choices on those issues. Mr. Maraniss' reportage is thorough, and his evocation of the American South in the 1950's and the turbulence of the 1960's in Washington, Oxford and New Haven is compelling. However, the narrative loses a little steam when he describes Clinton's career in Arkansas. Again, this is the essential study of President Clinton's early life, but future biographies are needed to complete a portrait of the brilliant but exasperating man from Arkansas.
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Summary: An outstanding explanation of a complex man
Review: Regardless of your personal feelings about President Clinton, you will enjoy this first-rate book by David Maraniss. Issues that have been over-publicized and muddied by the media, in particular his draft experience, are made clear by the excellent unbiased writing of Mr. Maraniss. In the context of his experiences, one is able to truly understand what drives Clinton. An excellent glimpse into what drives great men, a read from which anyone will benefit. First, one will gain a better understanding of how a person's background drives him to make the decisions he does. Second, one will better understand the unique combination of talent and circumstances that explains how men rise to positions of power. Congrats to Maraniss for producing a book that I highly recommend as one of the best biographies I have ever read.
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Summary: Clinton will be forgotten faster than any other president.
Review: The book is a major achievement about a dual personality of a president not fit for any office. The author shows how Bill Clinton overcame the the odds of his valueless family by playing the game with anybody he could use, lie to and intimidate. On the other hand, it also shows his lack of character and the cost he is paying for such actions. In the end, this kinbd of behaivor will only lead to his lost of a sense of purpose. Regardless of what happen, when Bill clinton leaves the seat of power, no one will seek him out, no one will want to remember and few will ever forget just how lame he is both as a leader and president. It is time to bury the memory of Bill Clinton, he will not go easily into the night but will be gone sooner than anyone ever imagined. After reading the book I know this will be true. The only legacy for this president will be what he never had, "The Lost Of Creditability." When Bill clinton cannot be believed he cannot achieve which in the end is an artful way of saying he did nothing but travel and enjoy the White House. So be it and so be rid of him like the book says.
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Summary: Fascinating and fair
Review: This book is exhaustively researched and unbiased. Don't let some of these reviews fool you -- Mariness has no pro- or anti-Clinton agenda. Whether you loathe him or love him, you will leave this book with a greater understanding of why he has done what he's done, and you'll be amazed at how often patterns repeat themselves in his life.
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Summary: First In His Class
Review: This book is the absolute gold standard for political biographies. Maraniss has no axe to grind-he's just a terrific researcher, writer, and analyst. Read this book before you even think about reading any other book about Clinton.
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Summary: A Great Book about a Complex President
Review: This book is very informative and well written. It uncovers our intelligent, adulterous, articulate, dishonest President Bill Clinton. I would recommend this book to my friends.
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Summary: Well-researched, comprehensive guide to Clinton's behavior.
Review: This book not only is a deeply researched, beautifully written insight into the life of Bill Clinton, it also takes us inside the world of politics to a depth that we seldom penetrate in daily reading of the news. It allows us to understand a little better why this brilliant, but flawed, man behaves in a way which confuses his friends and enemies alike, perhaps even himself. This is done by an exhaustively detailed look into both the momentous and the trivial happenings in Bill Clinton's life from his early boyhood to his first run for the presendency. My main question, and the reason why I am at this location in the webb looking for answers, is:Why is this book not referred to by the commentators now addressing the Starr Report? It is seems to me this book is indespensible background material.
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Summary: The continual compaingner
Review: This book offers the reader a wonderful opportunity to get to know the skillful campaigner, Bill Clinton early on from his childhood through the presidency. A must read.
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Summary: Engrossing book from a good person
Review: This book tells a story of Clinton's past and his road to power. It is also a touching family story with some impressive psychological insights. One of the features of this book: you can't help but think that the author is a decent person. The devil is in the details, and the author's attention to the detail is impressive. It is obvious that it is difficult sometimes and takes effort, but Mr. Maraniss manages to give us a balanced account of the events-packed life of the mercurial president. Accounts on Clinton's tempo tantrums and his hot-temper were news for me. In the end, combination of idealism of the Wilsonian kind with Machiavellian pragmatism was, I think, crucial in bringing him to power. Wilsonian idealism is not a pose, but genuine attitude based on conviction; Machiavelliaism - what politics is all about - was easily adopted or learned from Hillary Rodham and Dick Morris. This is a dangerous combination, but it also brings success. Sometimes this success could be short-lived, as in case of Woodrow Wilson. Clinton is the most successful person in America today. How can we blame success? Will we be blaming it tomorrow?
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Summary: Excellent page turner
Review: This is an wonderfully written book which deals with President Clinton's rise to the top from his young days as a Boys Nation Senator (when he met Kennedy) to his announcement of his Presidential candidacy. Anyone who enjoys politics or stories of adversity should buy this immediately
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