Who exactly is Bill Clinton, and why was he, of all the brilliant and ambitious men in his generation, the first in his class to reach the White House? Drawing on hundreds of letters, documents, and interviews, David Maraniss explores the evolution of the personality of our forty-second president from his youth in Arkansas to his 1991 announcement that he would run for the nation's highest office. In this richly textured and balanced biography, Maraniss reveals a complex man full of great flaws and great talents. First in His Class is the definitive book on Bill Clinton.
What can you control? What do you do when you're under pressure, overwhelmed, and ready to get what you really want? As one of the first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilots in the US Navy, as well as a mom, wife, business consultant, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and global speaker, author Carey Lohrenz knows that the stress we experience can be just as intense as the stress in the cockpit of a fighter jet going Mach 2. But she's got a secret weapon to prevail: years of training to overcome the specific natures of uncertainty, stress, burnout, anxiety, and pressure. At our core, we know we've lost control. We've lost our grip on what we really want and who we really want to be. In order to solve the challenges of chaos and make our goals, dreams, and commitments a reality, we have to understand that in order to succeed when the pressure is on and to improve our performance overall, we've got to know what we can and cannot control. In Span of Control, Lohrenz walks us through the fundamentals of surviving and succeeding during times of crisis. Weaving together eye-opening science, gripping personal stories, insightful interviews, prescriptive advice, and a high-octane dose of encouragement and practicality, Span of Control helps leaders recognize how to focus on what matters most, formulate a plan for success, and communicate what's possible.
Despite the large number of books devoted to women's issues in the last twenty years, Washington Post reporter Elsa Walsh felt that the literature was missing a crucial element--the voices of women themselves. Setting out to probe the myriad layers of women's lives and to illuminate the interior struggles women face at work and at home, Walsh spent over two years interviewing three highly successful women about their lives. What she found in talking with former 60 Minutes correspondent Meredith Vieira, conductor and first lady of West Virginia Rachel Worby, and Dr. Alison Estabrook, chief of breast surgery at the country's second largest hospital, was that at crucial moments, these women who seemingly "have it all" had trouble fitting together the many pieces of their lives. In sharing the stories of Vieira, Worby, and Estabrook, Walsh provides real life, flesh-and-blood examples of the constant negotiations and compromises every woman must make to reconcile the innumerable and conflicting demands of her career, her family, her own sense of self-worth and satisfaction. Clear-sighted and compassionate, Divided Lives is an important book for all American women today.
In this witty, candid memoir, Ben Bradlee, the most important, glamorous, and famous newspaperman of modern times, traces his path from Harvard to the battles of the Pacific war to the pinnacle of success as the editor of The Washington Post--during the Watergate scandal and every other important event of the last three decades. of photos.
Edition after edition, Kathleen Stassen Berger’s bestselling textbooks connect all kinds of students to current state of developmental psychology, in an engaging, accessible, culturally inclusive way. Berger’s Invitation to the Life Span does this in just 15 concise chapters, in a presentation that meets the challenges of exploring the breadth of the life span in a single term. The new edition of Invitation to the Life Span incorporates a wide range of new research, especially in fast-moving areas such as brain development and psychopathology, while taking advantage of innovative new tools for media-centered teaching and learning. But throughout, as always, the signature voice of Kathleen Berger ties it all together, with relatable explanations of scientific content, wide ranging cultural examples, and skill-building tools for sharper observation and critical thinking.
For a decade, Marlin Fitzwater was White House spokesman for Presidents Reagan and Bush, a remarkably long sojourn in that high pressure post. His longevity was a testament to the unique combination of talents he brought to the job. And his long tenure gave him unparalleled insight into the way the press and the presidency collide in today's Washington. CALL THE BRIEFING, Fitzwater's memoir of the Reagan/Bush years, is an insightful, richly detailed account of the world where that struggle takes place. Fitzwater is not merely the public face of the presidency. He was a major presence at meetings in the Cabinet Room, on Air Force One, at Santa Barbara and Kennebunkport, witnessing, participating in, and sometimes shaping the events of those years. From Iran/Contra through the U.S./Soviet Summits to Bush's difficult 1992 election campaign, Fitzwater shows us the pressures of political life at their most intense. In one chilling chapter he describes the potent political and personal forces that broke three White House chiefs of staff and resulted in their resignation. And he explores the sometimes macabre nature of the press's coverage of the president in the "Death Watch," which recounts how a president's smallest ailment has political implications that may be laughable, but are also grimly serious. It is amazing to discover just how complex is every event in the life of a president. Fitzwater is a very funny Kansan. CALL THE BRIEFING is filled with his candid observations on the personalities and events of the Reagan/Bush years. He also gives an unusually incisive, fair account of how the reporters who cover the president find, investigate, and break their stories. Although he has no illusions about the unsightly and occasionally unsavory business of journalism, his respect and affection for reporters and their craft is boundless. His account of the power of the press and its influence on the presidency in setting the national agenda should not be missed by anyone who wishes to understand the complexities of presidential politics.
An unprecedented work from the brilliant young editor of The New Republic--who is celebrated also as an incisive defender of the equality of homosexuals--Virtually Normal is an impassioned, reasoned, subtle, and uncompromising political and moral treatise that will set the terms of the homosexuality debate for the foreseeable future.
A journalist for National Public Radio and ABC News recounts the challenges he has faced as a paraplegic at home and abroad, from the dangers of war-torn Iraq and Jerusalem to discrimination at home. Reprint.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power. Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga’s final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford’s defeat, too old to make another run. His comeback was fueled by an extraordinary confluence: fundamentalist preachers and former segregationists reinventing themselves as militant crusaders against gay rights and feminism; business executives uniting against regulation in an era of economic decline; a cadre of secretive “New Right” organizers deploying state-of-the-art technology, bending political norms to the breaking point—and Reagan’s own unbending optimism, his ability to convey unshakable confidence in America as the world’s “shining city on a hill.” Meanwhile, a civil war broke out in the Democratic party. When President Jimmy Carter called Americans to a new ethic of austerity, Senator Ted Kennedy reacted with horror, challenging him for reelection. Carter’s Oval Office tenure was further imperiled by the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, near-catastrophe at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant, aviation accidents, serial killers on the loose, and endless gas lines. Backed by a reenergized conservative Republican base, Reagan ran on the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”—and prevailed. Reaganland is the story of how that happened, tracing conservatives’ cutthroat strategies to gain power and explaining why they endure four decades later.
