Citizen: My Life After the White House by Bill Clinton
What's It About?
A powerful, candid, and richly detailed memoir from an American icon, revealing what life looks like after presidency: triumphs, tribulations, and all.Alfred A. Knopf has announced the upcoming publication of President Bill Clinton’s memoir, Citizen: My Life After the White House, set to release on November 19, 2024.
Remarkably candid, and richly detailed, Citizen offers fascinating insight into Clinton’s life – both personal and political – after his two terms as President of the United States. In this landmark publication, the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling My Life, Clinton discusses his triumphs and tribulations, set against a backdrop of historic events both at home and abroad.
President Clinton says: “A life in public service can be deeply rewarding if you accept that in the constant ebb and flow of history there are no permanent victories or defeats, and never forget that every life is a story that, regardless of time and circumstance, deserves to be seen and heard. I knew as I entered this new chapter of my life that I’d keep score the way I always have: Are people better off when you quit than when you started? Do our children have a brighter future? Are we coming together instead of falling apart? Citizen is the story of my twenty-three-plus years since leaving the White House, told largely through the stories of other people who changed my life as I tried to help change theirs, of those who supported me, including those I loved and lost, and of the mistakes I made along the way.”
Knopf EVP and Publisher, Reagan Arthur, says: “President Clinton’s achievements as President are of course widely known. In Citizen, he provides a rare and unflinching look at life after presidency – a step removed from the center of the political arena but no less passionate about the causes and ideals that always defined him, and as deeply galvanized by our era’s social and environmental upheavals as any concerned citizen.
“With the candor, intelligence, and political acumen for which he’s always been known, the President has left nothing on the table and his talent as a writer is on full display. His feelings on the election of 2016, the Supreme Court, President Trump, Vladimir Putin, and so much more are shared with breathtaking honesty. Citizen is a memoir of the highest order.”
Citizen offers a front-row, first-person chronicle of Clinton’s post-presidential years and the most crucial events of the 21st century, including: the Iraq War, the Haiti earthquake, the Great Recession, the elections of 2008 and 2016, COVID-19, the ongoing charitable work of the Clinton Foundation, the January 6th insurrection, and the enduring culture wars of our time.
Yet Citizen is more than a political memoir. These pages capture Clinton in a rare and unforgettable light: not only as celebrated former President, but also as a dedicated father, grandfather, and husband. He shares his support for Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Senator, Secretary of State, and presidential candidate, and openly details the frustration and pain of the 2016 election.
With riveting clarity and compassion, Clinton also weighs in on the unprecedented challenges brought on by a global pandemic, ongoing inequality, a steadily warming planet, and authoritarian forces dedicated to weakening democracy at home and across the globe. Drawing on hard-won wisdom from over fifty years in politics, Clinton pens a clear-sighted account of American democracy on the global stage, showing just how we got here and how we might embark on the road ahead.
Citizen is a testament to one man’s unwavering commitment to family and nation, a self-portrait composed of equal parts eloquence, insight, and candor.
About President Bill Clinton:
William Jefferson Clinton, the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice, led the U.S. to the longest economic expansion in American history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation with the belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, everyone has a responsibility to act, and we all do better when we work together. For more than two decades, those values have driven the Foundation’s efforts to advance leadership and accelerate solutions across the United States and around the world.
Flagship programs include the Clinton Global Initiative which transformed philanthropy and has resulted in more than 4,000 projects and partnerships making a difference for more than 500 million people in 180 countries; the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which changed how the global community procured and delivered life-saving HIV/AIDS medication – reaching more than 21 million people worldwide; and the Clinton Presidential Center and Library, which provides year-round civic education and cultural programming to help inform future generations of leaders to apply lessons of President Clinton’s lifetime in public service to the challenges of today. President Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton live in Chappaqua, New York.
