Hard Choices
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Flip to back
Flip to front
Hard Choices Hardcover – June 10, 2014
See all 9 formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
| Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audio CD, Abridged, Audiobook, CD
"Please retry"
|
$14.88 | $15.41 |
$20.91
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Start reading Hard Choices on your Kindle in under a minute.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?.
|
Editorial Reviews
Review
A subtle, finely calibrated work….Hard Choices is a statesmanlike document…with succinct and often shrewd appraisals of the complex web of political, economic and historical forces in play around the world, and the difficulties American leaders face in balancing strategic concerns with ‘core values.’ The tone is calm and measured, with occasional humorous asides, like describing an offer by Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leader, to take Bill Clinton along on a polar-bear tagging expedition. (Michiko Kakutani The New York Times)
[A] clear and at times riveting account of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four years as secretary of state….The book bolsters her reputation as a strong “representational” diplomat who carried the flag to 112 countries. But the meaty middle of Hard Choices does something more than chronicle the frequent-flier miles: It provides evidence that Clinton displayed good judgment as secretary of state and understood some important issues earlier than her boss, President Obama…..[O]nce Clinton gets rolling, she does what’s most valuable in this kind of memoir, which is to take readers inside her meetings — sketching portraits of the world leaders with whom she did business…..Perhaps the most revelatory passages in the book involve the secret diplomacy that led to the November 2013 interim nuclear agreement with Iran. (David Ignatius The Washington Post)
Hard Choices is a richly detailed and compelling chronicle of Clinton's role in the foreign initiatives and crises that defined the first term of the Obama administration — the pivot to Asia, the Afghanistan surge of 2009, the ‘reset’ with Russia, the Arab Spring, the ‘wicked problem’ of Syria — told from the point of view of a policy wonk… it's also mercifully free of the bromides that mar most campaign biographies. The book teems with small, entertaining details about her interactions with foreign leaders. (Los Angeles Times)
“To its credit, Clinton’s memoir is serious, sober and substantive….No fair-minded reader could finish this book and doubt Clinton’s essential command of the issues, whatever one might think of her solutions for them. She roams widely and delves into war and peace, terrorism and Russia, economic development and women’s rights. She knows the players and the history.” (Peter Baker New York Times Book Review)
“An amazing story….Above all, what comes through is Clinton's sheer persistence. This is how she does politics, by keeping going and totting up the small victories so that they outweigh the defeats.” (The Guardian)
“Enjoy Hard Choices for what it is at its best — a rich and lively narrative of Clinton's foreign policy successes, and failures.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“Undeniable depth.” (Financial Times)
“Blessed with an instant familiarity.” (The Independent)
“Clinton’s voice and world view is authentic…and this is gripping.” (Evening Standard)
“Clinton goes into deep detail about her work in Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan, Latin America, and other hot spots around the globe. She details her vision for U.S. foreign policy and the role of diplomacy. Along the way, she introduces readers to a who’s who of world leaders and gives insight into the way they think and do business.” (Booklist)
[A] clear and at times riveting account of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four years as secretary of state….The book bolsters her reputation as a strong “representational” diplomat who carried the flag to 112 countries. But the meaty middle of Hard Choices does something more than chronicle the frequent-flier miles: It provides evidence that Clinton displayed good judgment as secretary of state and understood some important issues earlier than her boss, President Obama…..[O]nce Clinton gets rolling, she does what’s most valuable in this kind of memoir, which is to take readers inside her meetings — sketching portraits of the world leaders with whom she did business…..Perhaps the most revelatory passages in the book involve the secret diplomacy that led to the November 2013 interim nuclear agreement with Iran. (David Ignatius The Washington Post)
Hard Choices is a richly detailed and compelling chronicle of Clinton's role in the foreign initiatives and crises that defined the first term of the Obama administration — the pivot to Asia, the Afghanistan surge of 2009, the ‘reset’ with Russia, the Arab Spring, the ‘wicked problem’ of Syria — told from the point of view of a policy wonk… it's also mercifully free of the bromides that mar most campaign biographies. The book teems with small, entertaining details about her interactions with foreign leaders. (Los Angeles Times)
“To its credit, Clinton’s memoir is serious, sober and substantive….No fair-minded reader could finish this book and doubt Clinton’s essential command of the issues, whatever one might think of her solutions for them. She roams widely and delves into war and peace, terrorism and Russia, economic development and women’s rights. She knows the players and the history.” (Peter Baker New York Times Book Review)
“An amazing story….Above all, what comes through is Clinton's sheer persistence. This is how she does politics, by keeping going and totting up the small victories so that they outweigh the defeats.” (The Guardian)
“Enjoy Hard Choices for what it is at its best — a rich and lively narrative of Clinton's foreign policy successes, and failures.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“Undeniable depth.” (Financial Times)
“Blessed with an instant familiarity.” (The Independent)
“Clinton’s voice and world view is authentic…and this is gripping.” (Evening Standard)
“Clinton goes into deep detail about her work in Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan, Latin America, and other hot spots around the globe. She details her vision for U.S. foreign policy and the role of diplomacy. Along the way, she introduces readers to a who’s who of world leaders and gives insight into the way they think and do business.” (Booklist)
About the Author
Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 after nearly four decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, and Senator. She is the author of several bestselling books, including her memoir, Living History, and her groundbreaking work on children, It Takes a Village.
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
267 of 310 people found the following review helpful
By
Robert B. Lamm
on July 9, 2014
Format: Hardcover
16 Comments
Sending feedback...
Some disclosures up front:
--Unlike some of the people who didn't like this book, I am a long-standing liberal Democrat. Among other things, this means that I'm not at all bothered by her constant digs at W's foreign policy (such as it was).
--While I'm not one of those people who worships the ground Hillary Clinton even thinks about walking on, I greatly respect and even admire her. In retrospect, I think she'd have made a better President than Mr. Obama, and I'll likely vote for her in 2016 (and I have got to believe she's running).
--I usually like or love books that combine politics with history.
For all these reasons and more, it's totally disappointing that this book was so bad. Another reviewer called it "pabulum," and while I disagree with other comments he made, that one is spot on. The only thing good about the book is that it was organized by global region. Other than that, it's dull, pre-digested and formulaic. She manages to take matters that are fascinating, terrifying, dramatic or even "just" historically significant and turn them into pedantic pabulum (there it is again). As if that weren't bad enough, she feels compelled to give us at least one moral for every story, but in every case I can recall the moral was something like "I believe that it's important to reach out to people who disagree with you." That kind of thing is really insipid and, frankly, condescending to anyone who shells out big bucks to buy a book like that.Read more ›
--Unlike some of the people who didn't like this book, I am a long-standing liberal Democrat. Among other things, this means that I'm not at all bothered by her constant digs at W's foreign policy (such as it was).
--While I'm not one of those people who worships the ground Hillary Clinton even thinks about walking on, I greatly respect and even admire her. In retrospect, I think she'd have made a better President than Mr. Obama, and I'll likely vote for her in 2016 (and I have got to believe she's running).
--I usually like or love books that combine politics with history.
For all these reasons and more, it's totally disappointing that this book was so bad. Another reviewer called it "pabulum," and while I disagree with other comments he made, that one is spot on. The only thing good about the book is that it was organized by global region. Other than that, it's dull, pre-digested and formulaic. She manages to take matters that are fascinating, terrifying, dramatic or even "just" historically significant and turn them into pedantic pabulum (there it is again). As if that weren't bad enough, she feels compelled to give us at least one moral for every story, but in every case I can recall the moral was something like "I believe that it's important to reach out to people who disagree with you." That kind of thing is really insipid and, frankly, condescending to anyone who shells out big bucks to buy a book like that.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
151 of 174 people found the following review helpful
By
Alexa Hoyne
on July 22, 2014
Format: Hardcover
16 Comments
Sending feedback...
I so badly wanted to like this book. Full disclosure, I am a strong liberal and I am very well-read on foreign policy and have read a large number of U.S. policy-maker memoirs. I respect Hillary a great deal and think she has had unparalleled experience, particularly in foreign policy, and was excited to see what she had to say. Unfortunately, I struggled through this. I read the first 300 pages very closely and then skimmed the last half. The whole book was written as if it was purely political rhetoric--unsurprising, I suppose, from someone who expected this book to be dissected on every page if she ran for President... but I can't help but think back to Obama's book shortly before he ran, and I did not feel this same way. The book is purely devoid of emotion; the closest it got to heartfelt genuine feeling was in discussing Richard Holbrooke's death, but even that felt guarded. It is full of cliches, fact-of statements, and few insights into decision-making, at least very very few that sound genuine at all.
Example: "It won't be easy to do that [make tough changes at home] in our current political atmosphere. But to quote from one of my favorite moves, A League of Their Own: 'It's supposed to be hard... The hard is what makes it great." Doing what's hard will continue to make our country great."
Cheesy, trite, and meaningless. This was an immense disappointment and I expected much more. I also did not think it was particularly well-written. Hillary exemplifies her diplomatic prowess, I suppose, but, as I read in another review online, proved that she has not mastered how to write a memoir. She somehow managed to take the topic I find most interesting and make it pedantic and dull.
Example: "It won't be easy to do that [make tough changes at home] in our current political atmosphere. But to quote from one of my favorite moves, A League of Their Own: 'It's supposed to be hard... The hard is what makes it great." Doing what's hard will continue to make our country great."
Cheesy, trite, and meaningless. This was an immense disappointment and I expected much more. I also did not think it was particularly well-written. Hillary exemplifies her diplomatic prowess, I suppose, but, as I read in another review online, proved that she has not mastered how to write a memoir. She somehow managed to take the topic I find most interesting and make it pedantic and dull.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
96 of 114 people found the following review helpful
By
JoeyInArlington
on July 24, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase
2 Comments
Sending feedback...
This is the driest, most boring piece of non-fiction that I have ever read. If history is repeating itself and Hillary uses this book to spring into a presidential run, I'm unimpressed. All she did in this book was use smoke and mirrors to appear ready and able to run the country....again, not impressed.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
68 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By
AmyN
on July 17, 2014
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
Sending feedback...
I am halfway through, and I just can't make myself finish. This is not normal for me. I am an avid reader, and I read a wide variety. While I am a conservative, thus not in agreement with much of Mrs. Clinton's ideologies, I do read - and finish - numerous works by liberal authors, fiction and non-fiction. Not finishing a book is almost unheard of for me.
The content is hard to connect with, and rather dry and unengaging. It also has a decidedly pompous tone that is difficult to get around in an honest attempt to really dig deep for that elusive connection. I truly do not say that as a conservative vs liberal thing, as I've been bored or put-off by more conservative authors, as well.
The content is hard to connect with, and rather dry and unengaging. It also has a decidedly pompous tone that is difficult to get around in an honest attempt to really dig deep for that elusive connection. I truly do not say that as a conservative vs liberal thing, as I've been bored or put-off by more conservative authors, as well.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
202 of 246 people found the following review helpful
By
A. Grande
on July 6, 2014
Format: Hardcover
4 Comments
Sending feedback...
Alright. I will lay out my political outlook first. I am a Conservative who is a bit of a political junkie and I follow politics like one would follow sports. Even though I am a Conservative I enjoyed Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams from my father". My favorite political autobiography was that of Ted Kennedy. The point is I can be non biased when it comes to literature. Hillary's "Hard Choice's" is a very boring book and that isn't always bad as long as it is informative but this book is not informative and its very partisan without details or explanation like Obama did in "The Audacity of Hope."
For example. Clinton explains her work in trying to improve relations with Turkey in her tenure as Secretary of State. She explains how important Turkey is given its economy, education, and geo political position. She goes on to say the US has always enjoyed great relations with Turkey but these were dramatically ruined under Bush's Presidency and now she has to clean up the mess. This attack on Bush's foreign policy is a constant theme in the book which is OK except there is no explanation as to why Bush was unsuccessful in specific countries like Turkey. I personally know Bush and Turkey butted heads because Turkey constantly did cross border operations into Iraq attacking the Kurdish community in the North. Bush threatened them with sanctions if they continued these operations as it was damaging our efforts there. It would have been useful to readers who were not in Iraq during that time period for her to explain that dynamic and then criticizing Bush's handling of it instead of blindly throwing jabs at Bush's foreign policy.Read more ›
For example. Clinton explains her work in trying to improve relations with Turkey in her tenure as Secretary of State. She explains how important Turkey is given its economy, education, and geo political position. She goes on to say the US has always enjoyed great relations with Turkey but these were dramatically ruined under Bush's Presidency and now she has to clean up the mess. This attack on Bush's foreign policy is a constant theme in the book which is OK except there is no explanation as to why Bush was unsuccessful in specific countries like Turkey. I personally know Bush and Turkey butted heads because Turkey constantly did cross border operations into Iraq attacking the Kurdish community in the North. Bush threatened them with sanctions if they continued these operations as it was damaging our efforts there. It would have been useful to readers who were not in Iraq during that time period for her to explain that dynamic and then criticizing Bush's handling of it instead of blindly throwing jabs at Bush's foreign policy.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Most Recent Customer Reviews
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
