A sitting president thinks out loud about his legacy to his close friend, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, over seven sometimes turbulent years.
Branch interviewed President Clinton 78 times between 1993 and 2001 for roughly two hours each time. The President's side of those conversations formed the basis of his own memoir. Branch's book is a rare look at the pressures of a job that Branch watched age this relatively young president, and it highlights major events from Clinton's two terms, including war in Bosnia, the anti-deficit crusade, health reform failure, antiterrorist strikes, peace initiatives, the 1996 re-election campaign, and White Water investigations culminating in his 1999 impeachment trial.