Product Details
Simon & Schuster, September 2009
Hardcover, 720 pages
ISBN-10: 1416543333
ISBN-13: 9781416543336
Description
Branch interviewed President Clinton 78 times between 1993 and 2001 for roughly two hours each time. The President's side of those conversations formed the basis of his own memoir. Branch, immediately after each session, recorded his take not only on the content of their conversations, but on Clinton's demeanor, moods, puzzlements and the homely aspects of his and his family's life in the West Wing. Because the mission was confidential, Branch encountered mostly the permanent, anonymous staff at the official residence: the ushers and butlers, who guided him to await Clinton in various rendezvous spots. Several tape sessions took place in the family den next to the President's bedroom, on a table next to Hillary's collection of ornamental frogs, or in the upstairs Solarium. Most took place in the President's private office.
The book highlights major events from Clinton's two terms, including war in Bosnia, the antideficit crusade, health reform failure, antterrorist strikes, peace initiatives, the 1996 re-election campaign, and Whitewater investigations culminating in his 1999 impeachment trial. It is a rare look at the pressures of a job that Branch watched age this relatively young president.
The book highlights major events from Clinton's two terms, including war in Bosnia, the antideficit crusade, health reform failure, antterrorist strikes, peace initiatives, the 1996 re-election campaign, and Whitewater investigations culminating in his 1999 impeachment trial. It is a rare look at the pressures of a job that Branch watched age this relatively young president.
Hear an Excerpt from the Audiobook
“I have seldom read a more compelling account of a leader in power. . . . An unexpected treasure-trove. Here is Clinton out of hours and off his guard. . . . The story behind this book reads like the plot of a Hollywood movie.”
-- Robert Harris, The Sunday Times (London)
“A remarkable portrait of White House life. . . . An important work about American political life. . . . Branch is an historian by trade, and an excellent one. . . . To the extent that Branch’s portrait of the president rescues politics from ignominy, he has done a real public service; that he has done this while vividly portraying an exuberant American original is cause for joy. . . . Revealing and often delightful.”
-- Joe Klein, The New York Times Book Review
“By turns intimate and dispassionately historical . . . this book will be a boon to historians. The casual reader might delight more in Branch’s glimpses of an unguarded president.”
-- Gilbert Cruz, Time
“Taylor Branch’s latest book has made me whistle more than any comparable piece of work for a very long time, and not just because of its many remarkable disclosures.”
-- Christopher Hitchens, Newsweek
“An extraordinary presidential confessional. . . . Intensely intimate. . . . A gold mine for future historians.”
-- Tom Mackin, The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
TVO.org, February 19, 2010
...Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch and author of "The Clinton Tapes", talks about his 79 secret taped conversations with President Clinton during his eight years in office. The second part of the show features ...
Minnesota Public Radio, December 16, 2009
...player code: so new SWFObject('http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/s_player.swf', 'minnesota_news_programs_2009_10_21_midday_midday_hour_2_20091021_64s_player', '319', '83', '8', sponsor: Pulitzer ...
Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2009
...look at John Cheever's life (and it is a wild ride) and contributions to American letters. The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster) An unusual arrangement between the 42nd U.S. president and ...
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 23, 2009
...usual political shennanigans that usually grace these columns. All that changed when I ventured into a session with Taylor Branch, the critcally acclaimed author of the civil rights trilogy, America in the King Years, who was hawking his ...
Telegraph, November 21, 2009
...Clinton loved political drama so much he even enjoyed his own defeats, says Toby Harnden, delighting in The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History in the White House by Taylor Branch For those hoping for a sober and dispassionate account of the ...
Globe and Mail, November 20, 2009
...summary of the conversation stops with that remarkable passage, leaving the rest to history. On May 27, 1997, Taylor Branch, an old Clinton friend and eminent biographer of Martin Luther King Jr., met the president for another of their 72 ...
St. Petersburg Times, October 20, 2009
...Taylor Branch says he has been surprised by at least one thing since the publication of his latest book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President. • 'I didn't ...
Cleveland Live, October 18, 2009
...By Taylor Branch Simon and Schuster, 707 pp., $35. %%by%%Margo Hammond Tendby%% %%source%%aylor Branch and Bill Clinton worked together on George McGovern's quixotic 1972 bid for the presidency. Disillusioned with current ...
Reuters UK, October 16, 2009
...House tapes provide new Clinton RTR_ArticleBlurb 'By ATLANTA (Reuters Life!) During his presidency, Bill Clinton met prizewinning historian Taylor Branch 79 times in the White House to record a secret diary of his time in office. The result ...
San Jose Mercury News, October 8, 2009
...BALTIMORE Between 1993 and 2001, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch served as President Bill Clinton's unofficial oral historian. The president retained the original 79 tapes of the dialogues Branch conducted with him, often late at ...
Dallas Morning News, October 6, 2009
...a contemporaneous record: letters or a diary that captures the president's real-time reactions to crucial moments. The Clinton Tapes presents a version of this. Historian Taylor Branch, author of three splendid volumes about the Martin ...
NARA, October 6, 2009
...More Information More Information Directions Visitor's Map Taylor Branch Photo credit: J. Brough Schamp Washington, DC&The National Archives will host author Taylor Branch to discuss his groundbreaking new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling ...
Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2009
...Taylor Branch is a prize-winning biographer -- he won the Pulitzer for "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1953-1963" -- and when he was invited by Bill Clinton to ...
St. Petersburg Times, October 4, 2009
...happens when historian meets man prodigiously hungry to make history? ? In the case of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch and former President Bill Clinton, the result is The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President. ? ...
Washington Post, October 3, 2009
...THE CLINTON TAPES Wrestling History With the President By Taylor Branch Simon and Schuster. 707 pp. $35 Jack Germond, for many years an insightful political reporter (and author of a memorable memoir ...
San Francisco Chronicle, October 2, 2009
...Clinton allows it, we will hear the many freewheeling conversations that he and his old friend, the historian Taylor Branch, secretly recorded, for posterity, throughout Clinton's presidency. Clinton may have the tapes, but Branch, after ...
Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2009
...The Clinton Tapes Wrestling History With the President Taylor Branch Simon & Schuster: 708 pp., $35 Vice President Al Gore had just lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, and ...
TheDay.com, October 2, 2009
...Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch recounts eight years of conversations with his friend Bill Clinton in the new book,The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President. They met as token Southerners at a ...
Columbus Dispatch, October 1, 2009
...campaigning and his lackadaisical 2004 memoir My Life promoted this accessible view of the presidency, as does The Clinton Tapes, a book based on about 80 conversations recorded with friend Taylor Branch. The long-winded volume -- which is ...
NARA, September 30, 2009
...More Information Washington, DC. . .The National Archives will host author Taylor Branch to discuss his groundbreaking new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History in the White House, on Wednesday, October 7, at 7 p.m. This program is ...
Individual.com, September 29, 2009
...The Clinton Tapes is based up 79 tape-recorded sessions involved two copies of each extensive interview between President Clinton and his old pal from the George McGovern Campaign, Taylor Branch. Taylor made ...
KSBY - TV, September 29, 2009
...bookstores Tuesday. Soon after he was elected president, Clinton says he began taping conversations with his old friend, Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer prize winning author. 'The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President' is 707 pages ...
CBS News, September 29, 2009
...0 Comments Photo Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, who wrote "The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President." (CBS/The Early Show) Play CBS Video Video Book Delves into Clinton Years Author Taylor Branch spoke with ...
Baltimore Sun, September 29, 2009
...So when Taylor Branch, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning civil-rights history 'Parting the Waters,' spent 1992's election night in Little Rock, Ark., and heard his old political pal Bill Clinton issue 'a ...
Individual.com, September 29, 2009
...be safe for him to travel to a North Carolina military base, according to a new book, "The Clinton Tapes." The book, by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Taylor Branch, is a collection of private conversations he taped with Clinton during ...
New York Times, September 25, 2009
...in 2004. This week: Lorrie Moore on her new novel, "A Gate at the Stairs"; Joe Klein on Taylor Branch's "Clinton Tapes"; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the ...
New York Times, September 25, 2009
...in 2004. This week: Lorrie Moore on her new novel, "A Gate at the Stairs"; Joe Klein on Taylor Branch's "Clinton Tapes"; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the ...
New York Times, September 25, 2009
...This week: Lorrie Moore on her new novel, ?A Gate at the Stairs?; Joe Klein on Taylor Branch?s ?Clinton Tapes?; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the book ...
Gulf News, September 25, 2009
...A new book by Taylor Branch, entitled The Clinton Tapes, reveals many taboo events that occurred during Bill Clinton's US presidency. We share a few highlights from the upcoming biography ...
Lexington Herald Leader, September 23, 2009
...and performed advanced level high school-level math at the age of seven. Salon.com has an excerpt from Taylor Branch's new book on Bill Clinton, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President. Commenting on Republican Jim Bunning's ...
Huffington Post, September 23, 2009
...noted yesterday, the new book on Bill Clinton, based on taped conversations he had throughout his presidency with Taylor Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and FOB, is loaded with intriguing and juicy passages about the Clinton years ...
Ananova, September 22, 2009
...have been revealed by Bill Clinton, reports the Daily Mail. The former US president made the disclosures to Taylor Branch, a writer and former flatmate, whom he invited to compile a new 'oral history' of the presidency based on 79 taped ...
Raleigh News & Observer, September 22, 2009
...safe for him to travel to a North Carolina military base, according to a new book called "The Clinton Tapes." The book, by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Taylor Branch , is a collection of private taped conversations he had with Clinton ...
IOL, September 22, 2009
...for his fondness for vodkaClinton, who is no stranger to indiscretions of his own, sat down with historian Taylor Branch to give an 'oral history' of his presidency. The results of 70 taped interviews between Clinton and Branch, who were ...
NBC Miami, September 21, 2009
...new light on old scandals and blows open ones that have been kept quiet up until now. "The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling with the President," by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch, is due out next week. Among the gems: Yeltsin, who ...
Nine MSN, September 21, 2009
...the 1995 incidents come from a series of interviews Mr Clinton made with his former flatmate and historian Taylor Branch for a new biography of the former American president. An eccentric and charismatic leader, Mr Yeltsin was known for his ...
National Review, September 21, 2009
...Clinton "may be having some second thoughts about the 79 oral history interviews " he gave to historian Taylor Branch during his presidency, USA Today reports. "The former president has been on the phone with Branch for hours since he got ...
New York Magazine, September 21, 2009
...it probably involves a bit of alcohol. Throughout his presidency, Bill Clinton would regularly sit down with author Taylor Branch, in secret, to record his private thoughts on personal and political events, as a way to chronicle the history ...
AOL, September 21, 2009
...(Sept. 21) ? Taylor Branch, a historian best known for his books on the civil rights era, had a secret that he kept for years: 79 interviews ? mostly late-night conversations at the White ...
Ledger-Enquirer, September 17, 2009
...fan whose own life - and marriage - have bottomed out. Does anyone get a second chance? THE CLINTON TAPES, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, Sept. 29). Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the civil rights movement ('Parting the ...
Merced Sun-Star, September 17, 2009
...fan whose own life - and marriage - have bottomed out. Does anyone get a second chance? THE CLINTON TAPES, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, Sept. 29). Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the civil rights movement ('Parting the ...
FreshNews.in, September 15, 2009
...to Bill Clinton?s daughter Chelsea during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a new book claims. Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch has made the allegation in his upcoming tome ?The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President?. ...
Brockton Enterprise, September 11, 2009
...likely be featured in another major release: former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe?s ?The Audacity to Win.? Taylor Branch?s ?The Clinton Tapes? draws upon conversations between Branch and then-President Bill Clinton, although Nissley ...
St. Petersburg Times, September 3, 2009
...an appearance by the St. Petersburg Times' Pulitzer-winning PolitiFact team. Among the headliners for the event is historian Taylor Branch, who won the Pulitzer for his trilogy of books on the civil rights movement, America in the King ...
MSN Entertainment, August 24, 2009
...likely be featured in another major release: former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe's "The Audacity to Win." Taylor Branch's "The Clinton Tapes" draws upon conversations between Branch and then-President Bill Clinton, although Nissley ...
Taylor Branch's Books
-
At Canaan's EdgeNow in paperback, the final volume of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch's magisterial history of the Civil Rights Movement, a powerful rendeRead More
Displaying 1 of
