Recommended Reading

Ronald Takaki offers a broad history of the many ethnic groups that have flourished in America in A Different Mirror (1993). On African Americans, see Steven F. Lawson, In Pursuit of Power (1985), Manning Marable, Black American Politics (1985), and John Higham, ed., Civil Rights and Social Wrongs (1997). Arthur J. Magida tells the story of controversial black leader Louis Farrakhan in Prophet of Rage (1996). For a feminist perspective on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, see Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice (1994).

On the reaction against the most recent immigrants, see David M. Reimers, Unwelcome Strangers (1998). The best survey of the nation’s second-largest minority group is Peter Skerry, Mexican-Americans (1993), which focuses on the issue of assimilation. For cultural relations between the United States and Mexico, see Lester Langley, MexAmerica: Two Countries, One Future (1988), and George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memory and Popular American Culture (1990).

The best account of Clinton’s prepresidential career is David Maraniss, First in His Class (1995). On the 1992 campaign, see the essays edited by Gerald Pomper, The Election of 1992 (1993), and Gerald Posner’s biography of the third-party candidate, Citizen Perot (1996).

Clinton’s first term receives detailed treatment in Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman, eds., The Clinton Presidency (1996), Stanley A. Renshon, High Hopes (1996), and in two books by journalist Bob Woodward, The Agenda (1994) and The Choice (1996). Haynes Johnson and David S. Broder analyze the reasons for the failure of the Clintons’ health care proposal in The System (1996).

James B. Stewart, Blood Sport (1996), is the fullest account of both the Whitewater charges and the White House response to them, but see also Jim McDougall and Curtis Wilkie, Arkansas Mischief (1998). Roger Morris offers a critical assessment of Hillary Clinton’s role in Partners in Power (1996).

James MacGregor Burns and Georgia Sorenson offer a liberal critique of the Clinton administration in Dead Center (1999). For good accounts of two major achievements, see Frederick W. Mayer, Interpreting NAFTA (1998) and Gwendolyn Mink, Welfare’s End (1998).

David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf provide a detailed account of the Republican congressional victory in 1994 and its aftermath in “Tell Newt to Shut Up” (1996). The architect of Clinton’s 1996 comeback, Dick Morris, tells his side of the story in Behind the Oval Office (1997). Two accounts by insiders, Robert B. Reich, Locked in the Cabinet (1997), and George Stephanopoulos, All Too Human (1999), offer insight into the Clinton administration.

Ronald Steel gives a preliminary estimate of Clinton’s foreign policy in Temptations of a Superpower (1995). For the secretaries of state, see the memoirs of Warren Christopher, In the Stream of History (1998), and two biographies of Madeleine Albright: Ann Blackman, Seasons of Her Life (1998) and Michael Dobbs, Madeleine Albright (1999). Mark Bowden describes the tragic incident that led to American withdrawal from Somalia in Black Hawk Down (1999). For the American role in Bosnia, see Wayne Bert, The Reluctant Superpower (1997), and Richard Holbrooke, To End a War (1998). Books on the Kosovo conflict include David Fromkin, Kosovo Crossing (1999), Tim Judah, War and Revenge (2000), and Ted Galen Carpenter, ed., NATO’s Empty Victory (2000), essays critical of Clinton’s intervention.

In Gathering Storm (1996), Morris Dees and James Corcoran offer a somber assessment of the militia movement, from the Ruby Ridge shootout to the Oklahoma City bombing. For the assault on the Branch Davidian compound, see the essays edited by Stuart A. Wright, Armageddon in Waco (1995), and James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? (1995). Michael Mello focuses on the legal issues involved in the case against the Unabomber in The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski (1999).

Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy (2000); Bob Woodward, Shadow (1999); and Peter Baker, The Breach (2000) focus on Clinton’s role in the Lewinsky scandal.

The best biographies of the two major party candidates in the election of 2000 are Bill Minutaglio, First Son (1999), on George W. Bush, and David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima, The Prince of Tennessee (2000), on Al Gore.