A Woman in Power: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein presents a magnificent, revealing and comprehensive biography of a tormented, but also rock-solid and thoroughly political woman: Hillary Rodham Clinton. A penetrating portrait.

Never before has such an objective and sharp picture been painted of Hillary Rodham Clinton. With an eye for detail, Carl Bernstein describes and analyses her fascinating life and career, in which she was prepared to take enormous risks and yet always sought security. Hillary grew up in the Midwest, with a mother who cherished her and a very strict father, who is portrayed by the independent Bernstein much more harshly than Hillary herself has ever admitted. He sketches the development of her religious feelings, her intellectual formation, the influences of Martin Luther King Jr. and the political and social changes during the sixties, which ultimately led to her deep desire to change the world.

Bernstein provides insight into the Clintons' turbulent marriage and Hillary's role in her husband's success. He shows how important she was to Bill's triumphs and the difficulties he repeatedly encountered. Throughout the emotional and political chaos of the Lewinsky affair, Hillary remained supportive of her husband. In doing so, she won the sympathy of many who had previously had little sympathy for her. Eventually, that popularity led to a position as a senator in the House of Representatives—and that was the turning point.

As a student, Hillary was already considered the spokesperson for her generation: a generation of free-spirited women who go their own way. But when Hillary goes to Yale University and falls in love with Bill Clinton, she changes course. She exchanges her plans for an independent career as a lawyer in New York or Washington for a life with a politically ambitious man in Arkansas.

Her ultimate goal is the presidency of America, and from now on she is the one in the spotlight. This time she is determined to go her own way and fulfill her greatest wish: to fight for a better world at the highest level.