Citizen: My Life After the White House

Front Cover
Random House, Nov 19, 2024 - Biography & Autobiography - 464 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, candid, and richly detailed memoir from an American icon, revealing what life looks like after the presidency: triumphs, tribulations, and all.

On January 20, 2001, after nearly thirty years in politics—eight of them as president of the United States—Bill Clinton was suddenly a private citizen. Only fifty-four years old, full of energy and ideas, he wanted to make meaningful use of his skills, his relationships with world leaders, and all he’d learned in a lifetime of politics, but how? Just days after leaving the White House, the call came to aid victims of a devastating earthquake in India, and Clinton hit the ground running. Over the next two decades, he would create an enduring legacy of public service and advocacy work, from Indonesia to Louisiana, Northern Ireland to South Africa, and in the process reimagine philanthropy and redefine the impact a former president could have on the world.

Citizen is Clinton’s front-row, first-person chronicle of his postpresidential years and the most significant events of the twenty-first century, including 9/11 and the runup to the Iraq War, the Haiti earthquake, the Great Recession, the January 6 insurrection, and the enduring culture wars of our times. With clarity and compassion, he also weighs in on the unprecedented challenges brought on by a global pandemic, ongoing income inequality, a steadily warming planet, and authoritarian forces dedicated to weakening democracy. Yet Citizen is more than a political memoir. These pages capture Clinton in a rare and unforgettable light: not only as a celebrated former president and a foundation leader, but as a father, grandfather, and husband. He recounts his support for Hillary Clinton during her time as senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate, and shares the frustration and pain of the 2016 election.

In this landmark publication, the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling My Life, Clinton pens an illuminating account of American democracy on a global stage, offering a frank reflection on the past and, with it, a fearless embrace of our future. Citizen is a self-portrait of equal parts eloquence, insight, and candor, a testament to one man’s unwavering commitment to family and nation.
 

Contents

INTRODUCTION
3
The Man with No Face
11
The Egyptian American at the Wall
28
Work That Follows You Out of Office
41
President Bush 41 and the Childrens Drawings
69
New Orleans and the Boats of Bayou La Batre
84
Haiti and the People Who Keep Going
96
Hurricanes Hit Home and Bush 41s Last Rodeo
121
Fighting Disease and Poverty
141
Politics Rewriting History
247
the Resurgence of the Hard Right
286
the Virus We Resisted
375
epilogue
409
acknowledgments
415
index
421
Copyright

Family Life Goes On
130

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2024)

William Jefferson Clinton, the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice, led the U.S. to the longest economic expansion in American history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation; flagship programs include the Clinton Global Initiative, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the Clinton Presidential Center and Library. President Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton live in Chappaqua, New York.

Bibliographic information