“Wrestling History with the President,” this book’s subtitle, is both appropriate and misleading. In truth, Pulitzer Prize-winnng historian Taylor Branch, author of the brilliant “America in the King Years” trilogy of books, more often seems to wrestle with his place in the history he’s covering. Bill Clinton and Branch became friends working together on George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign. Following Clinton’s 1992 election victory, they renew this friendship. Clinton wants Branch to act as a historian of his presidency. Branch refuses any official post as historian, but does agree to meet regularly to discuss themes and events in Clinton’s presidency.
Recording the sessions, he gives the tapes to Clinton, but Branch records his own impressions and interpretations after each meeting. “The Clinton Tapes” are not based on the actual tapes between Branch and Clinton, but Branch’s post-session notes.
Throughout Clinton’s presidency, Branch regularly and secretly met with Clinton to dicuss his presidency. Throughout, Branch worries that Clinton will end these meetings, worries that he is not asking the right questions for posterity, worries that these sessions will be discovered amid the numerous investigations into the Clinton administration. See, Branch spends a lot of time wrestling himself. A long book, Branch seems to spend far too much time here discussing the U.S. relations with Haiti, while spending what seems like little time on Clinton’s impeachment. This is a rare and exceptional volume in that it offers a glimpse into both the Clinton era as well as a presidency as it’s happening.
These aren’t the recollections of a president years later, but the captured reactions of a president at work.
This volume reveals the brutal physical toll of the presidency as Clinton is often nursing a cold, an infection, an injury, or sleep-deprived fatigue. Readers also catch unexpected glimpes of Clinton as a doting father to daughter Chelsea. Branch shouldn’t have worried so much. He’s created a unique book, one which should shed a great deal of light on Clinton for future historians.
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BOOKS: The Clinton Tapes by Taylor Branch
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