Do All the Good You Can
How Faith Shaped Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Politics
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
Methodism in the public and private lives of the politician
After more than forty contentious years in the public eye, Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the best-known political figures in the nation. Yet the strong religious faith at the heart of her politics and personal life often remains confounding, if not mysterious, to longtime observers. Even many of her admirers would be surprised to hear Clinton state that her Methodist outlook has “been a huge part of who I am and how I have seen the world, and what I believe in, and what I have tried to do in my life.”
Gary Scott Smith’s biography of Clinton’s journey in faith begins with her Methodist upbringing in Park Ridge, Illinois, where she faithfully attended worship services, Sunday school, and youth group meetings. Like many mainline Protestants, Clinton’s spiritual commitment developed gradually throughout childhood, while her combination of missionary zeal and impressive personal talents has informed her career from the time of her pro bono work at Yale on behalf of children to the present.
Her Methodist faith has been very important to many of Clinton’s high-profile endeavors and in helping her cope with the prominent travails brought on by two presidential campaigns, never-ending conservative rancor, and her husband’s infidelity. Smith’s account examines Clinton’s faith in the context of work ranging from her 1990s pursuit of healthcare reform to a “Hillary doctrine” of foreign policy focused on her longtime goal of providing basic human rights for children and women--a project she saw as essential to United States security. The result is an enlightening reconsideration of an extraordinary political figure who has defied private doubts and public controversy to live by John Wesley’s dictum: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Smith (Religion in the Oval Office) sketches a sympathetic religious portrait of the former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. While much ink has been spilled about Clinton throughout her years in the public eye, the role of religion in her life "has been underappreciated," according to Smith, even though it has "significantly influenced" everything from her personality to her political policies. Smith unearths the childhood roots of Clinton's Methodist faith and explores how founder John Wesley's dictum to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can... as long as ever you can" became a north star in her public service career. He also overviews Clinton's faith-driven, humanitarian initiatives, from helping to create the Early Head Start program to allow "every child... to live up to his or her God-given potential" to lesser-known projects such as the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Curious readers might wish for more insight into how faith helped Clinton handle her loss to Donald Trump, though the author convincingly establishes Clinton's reliance on her religious convictions to cope with other life challenges, including her husband's infidelities. This fine-grained study is a must for students of contemporary American religion and politics.