Hillaryland (A First Lady, a Sisterhood, and the Remaking of Power and Politics)

From Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former speechwriter Lissa Muscatine, the inside story of Hillaryland: a group of women and a first lady who were brought together under the roof of American democracy and forged a new path for women in politics

By the time Lissa Muscatine arrived at the Clinton White House in 1993, transformation was already underway. After twelve years of Republican administrations, President Bill Clinton’s political rise felt like the arrival of a new dawn in American politics. But Clinton was hardly the only changemaker; his wife, Hillary, represented something equally powerful: a presidential spouse balancing her professional expertise with a first lady’s conventional White House responsibilities in an era of rapidly changing  gender norms. When Hillary arrived at the White House, the role of first lady was still largely ceremonial, carrying no job description or legislative authority. Hillary planned to change that. Modernizing the first lady role, she discovered, would win applause from some Americans but rankle traditionalists, leading to a barrage of criticisms about Hillary’s legal career, her marriage, and even her hair.

In the White House, Hillary assembled a vibrant, diverse, and first of its kind group of women – and a few men – to serve as her closest advisors. Nicknamed Hillaryland, the staff, which soon included Muscatine, pushed an ambitious policy agenda focused on women, children, and families. As her speechwriter, Muscatine’s job was to communicate Hillary’s priorities to a public still unsure how to interpret such a powerful political wife. Hillary’s ground-breaking tenure, which included overseeing a major legislative initiative, health care reform, revealed the uphill battle that women in politics face when attempting to define their own narrative. Surrounded by Hillaryland, the first lady continued to fight for her causes in the face of relentless investigations, political attacks, and cultural backlash, staring down her critics at every stage. When health care reform failed, the first lady and Hillaryland made a pivot, turning attention to a broader domestic policy agenda and raising the banner for women’s rights around the world. By the end of their eight years in the White House, they had scored historic policy achievements, modernized an antiquated FLOTUS role, and laid the groundwork for Hillary’s subsequent career as a US senator, Secretary of State, and the first woman to secure the presidential nomination from a major American political party.

Hillaryland is Muscatine’s riveting account of these turbulent years and of the female staffers who were, above all, a White House sisterhood. Drawing on more than 230 interviews with Hillary’s colleagues, friends, and Hillary, Muscatine brings to life the fast-paced days and late nights she spent in the company of an intelligent and formidable group, giving voice to women’s lives and experiences at the highest reaches of government. With rich storytelling, historical insight, and humor, Muscatine recounts how she and her colleagues helped a pioneering first lady fight develop an independent political identity of her own. A rare window into a critical moment of American history, Hillaryland is a testament to how female solidarity expanded the boundaries of women’s political power.