What Happened
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2017
Simon & Schuster
504 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501175565
Summary
In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.” —Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the introduction of What Happened
For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history.
Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules. This is her most personal memoir yet.
In these pages, she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterward.
With humor and candor, she tells readers what it took to get back on her feet — the rituals, relationships, and reading that got her through, and what the experience has taught her about life. She speaks about the challenges of being a strong woman in the public eye, the criticism over her voice, age, and appearance, and the double standard confronting women in politics.
She lays out how the 2016 election was marked by an unprecedented assault on our democracy by a foreign adversary. By analyzing the evidence and connecting the dots, Hillary shows just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the outcome, and why Americans need to understand them to protect our values and our democracy in the future.
The election of 2016 was unprecedented and historic. What Happened is the story of that campaign and its aftermath — both a deeply intimate account and a cautionary tale for the nation. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 26, 1947
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., Wellesley College; J.D., Yale University
• Currently—lives in Chappaqua, New York
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician who was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, and the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Her account of that 2016 presidential campaign is the subject of What Happened (2017).
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Clinton graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. After serving as a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton in 1975.
In 1977, she co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first female partner at Rose Law Firm the following year. As First Lady of Arkansas, she led a task force whose recommendations helped reform Arkansas's public schools.
As First Lady of the United States, Clinton was an advocate for gender equality and healthcare reform. Her marital relationship came under public scrutiny during the Lewinsky scandal, which led to her issuing a statement reaffirming her commitment to the marriage.
In 2000, Clinton was elected as the first female Senator from New York. She was re-elected to the Senate in 2006. Running for president in 2008, she won far more delegates than any previous female candidate, but lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama.
As Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, Clinton responded to the Arab Spring, during which she advocated the U.S. military intervention in Libya. She helped organize a diplomatic isolation and international sanctions regime against Iran, in an effort to force curtailment of that country's nuclear program; this would eventually lead to the multinational Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement in 2015.
Leaving office after Obama's first term, she wrote her fifth book, Hard Choices: A Memoir (2014) and undertook speaking engagements.
Clinton made a second presidential run in 2016, accepting her party's nomination for president on July 28, 2016, thus becoming the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Her vice presidential running mate was Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Despite winning the national popular vote by three million votes, Clinton lost the electoral college vote and presidency to her Republican opponent Donald Trump. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/12/2017.)
Book Reviews
What Happened is not one book, but many. It is a candid and blackly funny account of her mood in the direct aftermath of losing to Donald J. Trump. It is a post-mortem, in which she is both coroner and corpse. It is a feminist manifesto. It is a score-settling jubilee…. It is worth reading.
New York Times
What Happened is a raw and bracing book, a guide to our political arena.
Washington Post
The most useful way to read What Happened is as one last instance of Clinton doing what she calls her civic duty.
Los Angeles Times
Contains…insights into Ms. Clinton’s personality, character, and values, and the challenges confronting women in politics.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The writing in What Happened is engaging — Clinton is charming and even funny at times, without trying to paint herself in too flattering of a light…. Ultimately, the book might be a historical artifact most of all — the chronicling of what, exactly, it was like to run for president as the first woman major-party candidate (and, yes, a Clinton as well). Plenty may disagree with Clinton’s opinions on what went wrong for her, but her story will still be an important part of that history when America looks back on the melee that was the 2016 election.
NPR
An engaging, beautifully synthesized page-turner.
Slate
In What Happened, the former Secretary of State reflects on her failed presidential campaign, reflecting on her concerns about the direction President Trump is taking the country and how she handled her loss.… Clinton peppers the book with references to books that she thinks help explain Trump's rise and how America should respond to it as well as poems, novels and essays that inspired her and helped her cope with her loss
Time
Here is Clinton at her most emotionally raw.… While What Happened records the perspective of a pioneer who beat an unprecedented path that stopped just shy of the White House, it also covers territory that many women will recognize.… She demonstrates that she can mine her situation for humor.
People
What Happened is not a standard work of this genre. It’s interesting; it’s worth reading; and it sets out questions that the press, in particular, has not done enough to face.
Atlantic
[Clinton] indicts everyone responsible for her stunning defeat in this rancorous memoir.… [H]er sense of entitlement clouds her analysis, and …[t]he lack of serious reflection…makes the book a telling epitaph for Clinton's campaign.
Publishers Weekly
Clinton…[is] eagle-eyed about her faults and clearly recognizes where her statements and actions (deplorables, anyone?) worked against her.… Clinton brings much-needed perspective… [as to] what happened and why. — Ilene Cooper
Booklist
Gracious, sometimes-wonkish post-mortem of the last presidential election.… A touch too reserved and polite…. Still, a useful book to read — and, for many, to mourn over.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for What Happened … then take off on your own:
1. Well, what did happen? To what does Clinton attribute her 2016 electoral college loss? What factors were beyond her control? What mistakes does she accept responsibility for? At whom or what does she point a finger?
2. Some reviewers say that, in her book, Clinton refuses to accept responsibiity for her own missteps. Other reviewers say she is gracious and self-effacing in taking much of the blame. What do you think: does she level blame at others …or accept the role she played in her loss?
3. Is Clinton "letting [her] guard down" as she claims she does in this book? Do you feel she goes inward in order to reveal aspects of her true self? Or does she put up a screen? In other words, how open and frank is Clinton in this account?
4. Follow-up to Question 3: At one point, Clinton says, "I wear my composure like a suit of armor—for better or for worse" Good thing? Bad thing? What actually does she mean?
5. How would you describe Senator Bernie Sanders' role in the campaign and in Clinton's ultimate loss? How does Clinton describe his role?
6. How does Clinton assess her West Virginia missteps? Talk about her insights into why so many of the coal miners seem to have voted against their own economic interests? Do you think Clinton is correct …or at least close?
7. Be sure to talk about the email imbroglio, then-FBI-director James Comey's actions, and Russian interference.
8. What are some of the lessons on the campaign trail Clinton says she learned from Donald Trump — lessons she feels can be applied in predicting the kind of President he will make (has made, is making)? How accurate or inaccurate do you think her predictions have been so far?
9. What do you think of Hillary Rodham Clinton? Does this book confirm or alter your views of her?
10. How does Clinton say she consoled herself after losing?
11. What role did feminism and antifeminism play in the election?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)