The Clinton Tapes; Wrestling History with the President

New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2009. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/good. Jason Snyder (Illustration). Glued binding. Paper over boards. x, [2], 707, [1] pages. Illustrations. Index. Small tear and small scratch on front DJ. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page. Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. Branch served as an assistant editor at The Washington Monthly from 1970 to 1973; he was Washington editor of Harper's from 1973 to 1976; and he was Washington columnist for Esquire Magazine from 1976 to 1977. He also has written for a variety of other publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Sport, The New Republic, and Texas Monthly. In 1972, Branch worked for the Texas campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. Branch shared an apartment in Austin with Bill Clinton, and the two developed a friendship that continues today. He worked with Hillary Rodham, Bill's then-girlfriend and Yale Law School classmate, and later Clinton's wife. Branch's book on Bill Clinton, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President, was written from many tape-recorded interviews and conversations between them, most of which occurred in the White House during Clinton's two terms in office and which were not disclosed publicly until 2009. Branch received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991 and the National Humanities Medal in 1999. In 2015, he received the BIO Award from Biographers International Organization, for his contributions to the art and craft of biography. A history of the Bill Clinton years based on taped interviews with the president while he was in office. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Branch (At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968, 2006, etc.) approaches the story of Clinton's administration from a unique angle. As a longtime friend of the family, in 1993 the author agreed to assist in recording what was, in effect, Clinton's secret diary. In 79 informal sessions, held sporadically until 2001, Clinton talked spontaneously about recent events, aiming to create an unfiltered, on-the-spot record of events for future historians. The interviews cover a lot of ground: the president's failed health-care reform, the conflict in Bosnia, the Whitewater controversy, the 1996 reelection campaign and much more. Because Branch is very much Clinton's friend, however, he doesn't get below the president's well-polished surface when it comes to uncomfortable topics. For example, the president was standoffish on the subject of Monica Lewinsky, and Branch was simply too polite to press him on it. The few unguarded episodes—including the time Clinton dozed off in the middle of a taping session due to his exhaustion in the wake of the Democrats' crushing defeat in the 1994 Congressional elections, or when he recalled his final visit with his beloved mother, shortly before her death—are the most riveting aspects of the book. But there aren't many surprises here—Clinton, after all, used the tapes as reference material for his 2004 memoir—and Branch's interest in minutiae, such as descriptions of delays he faced when he went to visit the president, slow the narrative. Presidential history buffs will certainly appreciate the you-are-there, nuts-and-bolts account of the Clinton administration, but Branch fails to capture an honest portrait of a man who may be, ultimately, unknowable. A one-of-a-kind—though not particularly revealing—perspective on the Clinton presidency.