What Happened ~ Hillary Rodham Clinton

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.

Book Review:

I listened to the audiobook version of this, read by Hillary Rodham Clinton herself. I wish I was able to call her Madam President Clinton at this point but that would be inaccurate. Even through the unfortunate political climate that has occured since the election, she remains strong, stoic, and gives insight that I feel was necessary for me to read. I supported her throughout the campaign and throughout the book you can tell that she is grateful for each and every individual, including myself, that did support her and continue to support her. She remains hopeful for the future but is not afraid to be critical of the current situation either. 

She discusses everything from her early childhood, being told by her parents that she could do anything she wanted; to law school, where she began to see more of the gender indifferences and had to work twice as hard as her male counterparts; to her early marriage with Bill Clinton, where her choice to keep her Maiden name may be one of the reasons that he lost an election; to the birth of her daughter, who is the one who keeps her strong; to her first presidential campaign that she lost to Barak Obama; to the most recent and devastating presidential election; and finally to her current fight for our country and the many young girls who look up to her. Listening to all her personal stories and revelations gave me hope. So much has changed since she was a child, and although we agree that under the current Presidency we are falling backwards a bit, we will eventually break all of the glass ceilings and as long as we keep fighting, Trump will not break us. 

Beyond the hope that she instills in me, she also discusses every potential mistake, thoughout her entire life, that she credits with potentially allowing for her defeat in the past election. She doesn't only blame herself though, she does recoognize that Russia's interference, Comey's letter days before the election, and the media only portraying the controversy around her eventhough she had many amazing policy ideas, all had a part in her defeat. This was important to me. It was important to me that she recognized her own faults but that she also knew that there was nothing more she could have done because other factors still would have been there and they still would have led to her defeat. 

She also does an an incredible job at explaining the differences that she experienced on the campaign due to her gender, things that Trump never had to deal with. She was accused of being too emotional, not emotional enough. She was told to be polite even though Trump was congratulated for being ruthless. She had to do hair and makeup every day. She had to remain feminine but not too delicate. She felt fear of Trump as he loomed over her on the stage after he basically congratualted sexual assault on the public stage. I feel that all women can relation to her experiences that may have been influenced by her gender in some way shape or form. 

Overall, I would listen to this book a hundred more times. Thank you, (Madam President) Hillary Rodham Clinton.