Review

William Jefferson [Bill] Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was the first president born during the post-World War II Baby Boom era to be elected. During his presidency, he oversaw one of the most bullish economies in U.S. history, which created millions of new jobs plus a large federal budget surplus. He also found success on domestic issues like health care reform, affirmative action, gays in the military, abortion, gun control, and welfare reform. While not totally successful with foreign issues including conflicts in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and China, President Clinton still enjoyed eight years of peace during his term. However, there was another side of Clinton, which I like to call "Slick Willie." "Slick Willie," the pop icon who loved to play his saxophone on late night talk shows, had to deal with scandals like affairs with Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky, dodging service during the Vietnam War, whether or not he used illegal drugs, ethical issues like Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, campaign finance critiscm, and last minute pardons. Most importantly, he was only the second President in U.S. history to be impeached. These achievements, impediments, and everything in between are detailed in Peter B. Levy's Encyclopedia of the Clinton Presidency. It offers its readers an unobstructed view of the glass house known as the Clinton legacy. Readers will find over 230 unbiased entries including brief articles on the major players in the Clinton administration, even tidbits on Clinton's Republican opponents. The entries include imperative but yet not overly technical statistics on legislation, the economy, the federal budget, and crime as well as formal and informal photographs taken by federal government and news media agencies.. A time line beginning in 1991 provides a condensed day-by-day account of the 20th Century's last presidential administration.	1
Students and educators at the secondary and post secondary levels interested in U.S. and presidential politics and history will find this a valuable yet not fully complete resource, incomplete perhaps, because Clinton's legacy is still being written. The introduction to this book is a good, short, unbiased overview of the Clinton years. However, the timeline presented is disappointing because it only notes the truly marquee events and may not be in-depth enough for educators to use in their classroom. Further, by having the timeline ending on the last 'official' day of the Clinton presidency, it suggests that events from these years have no impact or importance today and so fails to show how Clinton's legacy is being viewed. In the same tone, while Yasir Arafat, Marc Rich, Boris Yeltsin and others are mentioned in general event entries, specific entries for each are needed to fully document their influence. However, references to related entries are clearly identified in the text of the entry itself with boldface type or at the end of the entry. In addition, each entry is accompanied by suggested readings. As noted by Levy in his introduction, however, some of the suggested readings are World Wide Web sites. Since the Web is an ever-changing technology some of the references will indubitably disappear or be relocated. While Levy made every effort to provide vital statistics for all entries on individuals, a photograph of each individual would have enhanced these entries. Further, the location of the timeline should have been immediately after the introduction since it supports this short unbiased overview of the Clinton years and provides a focal point a.k.a. table of contents for how to use this book's entries. Finally, the $65.00 cost may be too pricey for tight secondary and post secondary budgets especially since a vast amount of material on the Web no doubt will provide just as clear and even more detailed understanding of the Clinton presidency and will include visual and audio material.	2
Malcolm Price Laboratory School, University of Northern Iowa Jason Follett

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