Living History'

Author: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Publisher: Scribner / 2003

Pages: 847

This is turning to be the most exciting summer in US politics in many, many years.

What started off as a walk-over by Donald Trump over a tired and senescent Joe Biden has turned to be an exciting race till November with Kamala Harris infusing new enthusiasm and galvanising the Democrats of whatever colour, gender and opinion.

This was evident last week at the Democrat Convention held in Chicago.

Among the speeches that were made, the one by Hillary Rodham Clinton must take pride of place. Clinton came closest to breaking the glass ceiling as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, but she was defeated by Donald Trump.

The reason became clear last week. She had based her campaign on her gender, and she lost for precisely this reason. America was not ready to put a woman in the Oval Office.

Now Clinton had been Secretary of State, apart from holding office in various levels of government, but this was not enough for many people. They still believed a woman's place was at home and rearing children.

The irony then was that many turned away from supporting her because of her husband's infidelity with Monica Lewinsky.

This time round Kamala Harris has toned down the gender issue and focused on the other issues of the campaign.

One reason for this is that ever since Clinton's defeat by Trump the number of women senators, etc. in the US has increased by leaps and bounds.

So Clinton was right to say in her speech in Chicago that the glass ceiling is now much nearer to be broken than ever before.

The book I am reviewing today is an autobiography by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Dating back to 2003, the book tells of her life till then, when her career was far from over.

The book tells Hillary's story as seen by her and thus Bill Clinton's extramarital dalliance is mentioned but in short. The book provides detailed accounts of her travels around the world, along with her legislative initiatives.

She was born some three weeks before me and in a way we come from a similar post-war generation, the "baby boom'", when families were still living in what we would consider as poverty, though not as bad as in the war years. Nor did they, and we, have the opulence we are used to today.

The person, who was more influential on her youth, was her father and it was to honour him that she kept his surname, Rodham.

The irony is that he was a staunch Republican but ended up canvassing for his son-in-law Bill, the Democrat president.

Hillary's childhood and upbringing were typical of white middle-class, so that might have been perceived as not altogether representative of today's multicultural America when the 2016 presidential election came round. Not that Trump was any better. Rather, he was a multi-millionaire with key buildings and resorts all over the world. But his campaign was focused on the complaints of the middle-class who were led to believe their interests had been sold out on the altar of globalisation.

Even before she met Bill Clinton, Hillary was involved in politics as a lawyer taking on difficult cases involving women and children. Even then, it was still not easy to speak out and challenge conservatism.

Though, as said, she came from a Republican background, the events of the late 1960s pushed her to join the Democrats because of the war in Vietnam and the fall of Nixon at Watergate.

It was about this time that she met Bill Clinton and it was love at first sight which, although almost destroyed by Bill's extramarital adventure, is still somehow going strong.

At first, both of them were students and then beginners in their profession with Hillary joining a company of lawyers while Bill was more interested in politics.

He was soon elected governor and went on to serve four terms.

Soon he was tempted to try and be a presidential candidate but he refused in 1988 because his daughter Chelsea was too young. But in 1992 he managed it and beat a tired George Bush.

Thus began Bill Clinton's first term. Once the inauguration was over, the Clintons had to learn, the hard way, that to be at the top meant you had to be open to attacks by the rivals and there were no limits to the aggressiveness, virulence and hatred.

The Clintons were accused of financial fraud because of investments made in the past, fomented by their erstwhile partner who turned out to be a fraud.

This battle to defend their good name forced them to submit to intense scrutiny and expose their private finances for all to see.

Even before that Hillary, who had been charged with a wide-ranging reform of the health sector - which all agreed needed thorough and radical reform - found obstacles at every turn.

At the end it had to be abandoned half-done and the Clinton presidency lost heavily in the mid-term elections and the Republicans emerged on top.

Meanwhile, body blows of a different type rained on the presidency, especially the suicide of a key staffer, Vince Foster, directly attributable to attacks on the Clinton integrity, and then the death of Hillary's father.

The book then delves into the second term, focusing particularly on the adultery scandal involving Lewinsky and how Hillary rationalised staying with her husband instead of walking out on him.

That's as far as this book goes but her life continued and it still goes on as a senator. In between there were two attempts at becoming president, which both failed.

All that and more would be material for the second part of the autobiography.