As he did in First In His Class, his wonderful biography of Bill Clinton, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss has packed so many details and so many colorful stories into When Pride Still Mattered that the book reads more like a novel than a biography. Football fans probably think they already know everything about Vince Lombardi; serious readers may think they have no use for a biography of a football coach. Both don't know what they're missing. There's plenty of football here: great chapters on Fordham's Seven Blocks of Granite, the New York Giants team with assistant coaches named Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, the immortal Ice Bowl, Lombardi's final season in Washington. But Maraniss sets it all in its proper context, and the reader knows what it's like to live in the New York of the 1930s (even which subway routes to take from here to there), knows Lombardi's weekly routine in Green Bay (clean closets, watch Tom and Jerry cartoons), feels how cold it was at Lambeau Field or how difficult it could be for his family to live with "St. Vince." This is not merely a sports book or only a biography; like Lombardi himself, it's everything -- more than -- and yet nothing, like you'd expect it to be.

I too started the book as a football fan, and ended the book as a fan of the man and his principles. From childhood, through minimal success on the field, then to enormous success as a leader in America in the 1960s. You get a sense of the true values and character of not just Vince Lombardi, but America during a time of national change. I was only 10 years old when he died, but the stories of the Lombardi Packers are still cherished in the midwest today. But that misses the point. How a man can lead every team he touched to the top is studied and presented and you can almost see into his mind. It was sad to see the family suffer through years of anguish, mixed with with pride, love, and loyalty. The author's style and storytelling were excellent.

"When Pride Still Mattered" is an absolute must read for any Green Bay Packer fan, and any student of the sport of football. Mr. Maraniss provides the reader with a unique perspective of the history of college and professional football, the birth of the NFL, and the American culture through the life of Vince Lombardi. Through the life of Lombardi the reader gains insight into the early careers of Bart Starr, Frank Gifford, Tom Landry, as well as Packer greats Jerry Kramer, Max McGee, Paul Hornung, Willie Davis, and many others. "When Pride Still Mattered" provides the reader an unfiltered view of the life and career of Vince Lombardi, and how this complex man was able to bring out the best in his teams, even at his worst, and how he has become an enduring American icon.

I never really liked Newt and I was hoping this book was going to be 200 pages of more reasons to dislike him or at the least more facts to sustain my current dislike of his politics. The tittle sure said to me that that was the focus of the book, unfortunately for me that was not what the book turned out to be. The authors decided to review 1995 and the battles between Newt and the rest of the world on policy. It was interesting and well written but the book Showdown by Drew did a much better job of covering the period of time.

With such a campy title I was looking for a lot of wit and humor and that really was not the strong point of the book. Overall the book lays out the facts in an easy to read way and it is well written, it just did not have the detail to make it the one complete record or the story and it did not have the sharp wit to make it satire.

From all aspects of the political spectrum left and right we should read this book and learn the cost of democracy. Newt Gingrich had a dream to spearhead a Republican Revolution and to bring it about as forcefully as possible. Unfortunately for him his nemisis William Jefferson Clinton knew how to counter him and how to do it well. The writing in this book is honest, and doesn't attempt to take sides. Anyone who truly wants to know why Congressman Gingrich exited from public life, you need not look further.

This book gives a good profile of the major figures of the Republican leadership of the 104th Congress. I have always enjoyed books such as this one, and Bob Woodward's "The Agenda," which give more insight into the personalities of their subjects than you would ever get from TV or newspapers. In the last two chapters in the book, which wonderfully describe the tedium of budget negotiations at the end of 1995, I could definitely feel some of the frustration that this group felt in their impasse with the White House.

David Maraniss has written a gripping account of Bill Clinton's rise to power. It is a testament to the quality of his work that there is no feeling of partisanship. The picture that emerges is one of a thoroughly determined, charming and intelligent individual. Maraniss examines also what kept him motivated and more precisely, who. Detailed accounts of his mother and stepfather, of Hillary and his peers are invaluable to help us understand this highly complex character. What I found most interesting about the book was the extreme emotions that I felt about Clinton. At first, one can only feel admiration and respect for the southern boy who made his way to Georgetown, Oxford and Yale Law with the brightest in the country. However, power corrupts and as Clinton starts his political ascension, he becomes less and less of a sympathetic character. I couldn't give this book five stars for a variety of reasons. While accounts of education and early life are undoubtedly useful guides, Maraniss should have focused more on Clinton's political career. It only starts roughly three quarters into the book... Finally, the book ends with Clinton announcing his candidacy for president in 1991. Surely, we could have gotten a glimpse of the toughest campaign of his life. Nonetheless, brilliant book which you should buy to understand the man who has presided over such prosperity and created such controversy.

David Maraniss has done of superb job of detailing, in an objective fashion, the strengths and weaknesses that make up President Clinton's complex character. The extensive documentation of literally hundreds of interviews with friends and colleages adds credibility to this first rate biography.

Maraniss wisely concentrates on Clinton's life until the time he announces for president thereby avoiding the premature evaluation of a presidency still in progress.

One of the most touching segments of the book concerns the trauma that Clinton and his fellow Oxford classmates suffered in their response to the draft and the war in Vietman. As someone who was a child during this time, I never realized what an ugly albatross these bright young men carried with them.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants an insightful and balanced biography of our first baby-boomer president.

I did not read this book until a few weeks ago, long after David Maraniss was being interviewed on almost every cable news show on almost a daily basis. My impression from the interviews (unfortunately shaped almost entirely by the tone of the interviewers' questions) was that this was just another hatchet job done on the Clintons by just another right-wing hatchet man a la David Brock and his ilk. Whoa! Not so! This is a fine and well researched exploration of much of Bill Clinton's life up to 1993. I have known the former president and his first lady since he ran for congress in 1974, and we have many friends in common here in Arkansas, an awfully lot of whom are women (I am an Ob/Gyn.) While I have heard the ugly rumors of Bill's infidelity for most of the 27 years I have known them, I've yet to meet or take a medical history from any woman who ever admitted that Bill Clinton ever made an in apprpriate move on her. I know dozens with whom he flirted over the years, most of whom were highly attracted to him and more than a few who, like Paula Jones, would probably have been willing to be his "girlfriend." But as far as I know, his reputation as a roue, at least since 1982 or 83, is vastly overstated. And given the intense scrutiny he has been under all that time, I suspect that he has had far fewer amorous adventures in the past 19 or 20 years than the average national politician on either the left of the right. But back to Maraniss' book - I found it eminently fair and balanced. Certainly Clinton has some unattractive traits, but he has never been mean, cowardly, vicious, nor even hypocritical (at least not when judged by current Republican standards.) Nor has he been venal, judgemental, or vendictive, as so many of his enemies have been. Certainly Clinton, like all of us, has made mistakes in his life. One can't live a life so active and involved as his and not hurt some or disappoint others, even while trying to do the best one can. Maraniss accurately caught his compassion and his empathetic nature, neither of which is phony (unlike the pseudo-compassion and faked empathy of our "compassionately conservative" current resident of the White House.) This book should be compulsory reading for Clinton haters and for aspiring politicians. Unfortunately, we may not see his equal again in the White House for a long, long time. Probably the greatest tragedy for this country and for Clinton's presidency was the ascendency in Arkansas of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, whose editorial policies make those of the Wall Street Journal look positively progressive, even benign. The editorialists and columnist of this newspaper propagated and promoted rumors and outright lies about the Clinton's to the national media for the duration of his presidency and both national campaigns. Unfortunately, Maraniss doesn't pick up on this aspect of the "Clinton scandals" any better than did the New York Times or the Washington Post, and therefor gives as much credence to many of the lies and rumors as did the Office of the Independent Council. Had he checked a little further, he might have come to many of the same conclusions as do Gene Lyons and Joe Conason in their fine book, The Hunting of the President. However, for what it is, it is a fine book and a real contribution to the historical record, which will treat Bill and Hillary Clinton with far greater respect than it will treat most of their detractors.

The intoxicating power of politics gives meaning to a young man's world. The book presents an interesting insight into Clinton's thirst for political and personal acceptance

NOT your standard political biography. Excellent example of the craft of biography, regardless of the subject. This reads reads like fiction and author David Maraniss clearly deserved his Pulitzer for his balanced reporting on the Clinton '92 campaign. The 400+ page book ends with Clinton's announcement for president. This goes a long way to explain why Clinton is the way he is. Love or hate him you can't be indifferent. A must read before the electiion

This is a POWERFUL book. A good, quick read from some of our premier modern-day American historians. This collection of essays gives us an inside look at most of the presidencies of the second half of the 20th century. A must read for any history buff.

• Edmund Morris - Last fall, Morris published the controversial biography Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. His book The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

• Ben Bradlee - Author of That Special Grace, a tribute to John F. Kennedy, Bradlee is a vice president at the Washington Post. He previously was the executive editor at the Post who oversaw reporting of the Watergate scandal.

• David Maraniss - A reporter at the Washington Post since 1977, Maraniss earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. He subsequently wrote the Clinton biography, First in his Class. His latest book is When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.

The "Power and the Presidency" series was created on behalf of the Montgomery Endowment by alumnus Robert A. Wilson of Dallas, a communications consultant who put together a similar series, "Character Above All" (dealing with the impact of character on presidential leadership) in 1994 at the University of Texas at Austin.

These well written essays provide vivid glimpses of varying Presidential personalities, with thoughtful discussion of individual strengths and weaknesses. To me, especially in an election year where character is a major issue, it was an enthralling read, with highlights of qualities such as "Reagan's voice, which was a large part of Reagan's power..." or the speaking style of TR, with plosive P sounds, which "would pop with Gatling-gun force. The effect of his oratory was to bury every word in the psyche of his listeners." or the political genius exhibited by FDR who talked "at a level at which very few people could follow him and understand what he was really saying" that FDR also recognized in a young congressmen, LBJ, as "he saw Johnson understood _everything_ he was talking about." I enjoyed reading these examples of behavior and the illuminating contrasts such as: "It is hard to imagine two more different men than Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy..." or "despite the major differences in their temperaments--indeed, I would argue, because of these differences--Eleanor and Franklin forged their historic partnership..." I would recommend to readers the book "Presidential Temperament" by Choiniere and Keirsey, another well researched volume which gives an explanation of "how each President's temperament inevitably expressed itself in his behavior, both in office and in his personal life."

Al Gore's promise in the 2000 campaign was "I'LL FIGHT FOR YOU."

To Wilson McWilliams in Commonweal (12/01/00) this is the slogan of a "second-rate" contestant saying, "Leave the fighting to ME." Gore "presented himself as ... an expert who will fight our battles for us, not a leader who will make us more able to fight for ourselves (p. 11).

Al Gore lives too many lives at once--not all of them conscious. One life always dominates but others are ready to leap out and bite. Grinding along in any of his lives--journalist, politician, researcher, polymath, crusader, etc., he is easy to predict. What remains unfathomable, however, is the timing of when he will switch lives. What comes next? Look to his genes and his rearing.

In THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE: THE RISE OF AL GORE, our Vice President grows relentlessly. The book (Simon and Schuster, 2000) is by Clinton biographer David Maraniss, aided by Washington Post staffer Ellen Nakashima.

Maraniss makes it clear where "I'll Fight for You!" comes from, especially the fighting. And the hatred of losing.

Take sports. While his father was Senator in Washington, young Al spent nine years in St Alban's school. He took art as an elective and was a good, imaginative painter. There he once asked a teacher, "Sir, is this the time to be rowdy?" (p. 45). Born in 1948 and for years a bit of a runt, suddenly in the summer of 1960 he became "a husky young man" (p. 52). Captain of St Alban's football team, he felt that his lackadaisical teammates were causing him to lose. So he told the coach they were breaking training. In basketball, Gore was "an incorrigible if deadly gunner from the left corner." A teammate remembered that "his goal seemed to be to score as many points as possible in order to get his name in the paper" (p. 56). He was a little slow and not much of a jumper, but tenacious. Relegated to the varsity bench at Harvard, on the few occasions when he did play, he was so competitive that he invariably threw elbows and was in foul trouble within minutes (p. 71). In the mid '70s as a freshman Congressman, Al Gore played pickup basketball in the House gym. He "fired from the corner, a long-range gunner who passed only if necessary" (p. 182). Does this help understand some of his tactics in the 2000 Presidential debates?

David Maraniss's book unsparingly traces the evolution of Gore's weaknesses: his stoic, machine-like woodenness as a speaker, mediocre grades in formal education, smoking far more dope and for more years than he ever admitted, constantly putting himself into competitions where he was good but never best (football, basketball, defense policy, Presidential campaigning) and a sad, profound loneliness and inability to make close friends.

But THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE also has his strengths: discipline which gets results, passion for facts, a quick study, an inability to be bored, a passion to try to explain the complex to the uneducated, e.g. global warming, detestation of racism and a shy personal outreach to black people. He had it all from the beginning.

What will Al Gore do now? He once promised Tipper to buy and run a small country newspaper. Daughter Karenna thinks he might become an astronaut. He will try something honorable and be good at it, but probably never be the very best.

This book leaves you with as many questions as answers. This fair, balanced, and well-written biography also shows just how complicated a man Al Gore really is.

The vice president's tendency to stretch the truth, we discover, is nothing new. The authors give some striking examples of this from his 1988 campaign for president when staffers had to write a memo telling him how often he is telling tall-tales. The one thread of the book that comes across clearly, is that Al Gore still lives with a deep insecurity and a very real need to please his late Father.

As I read the book, I was amazed how often my own feelings toward Al Gore would ride a wave only to crash, only to read on and catch another wave. The reason is simple: Al Gore is somewhat of a mystery man. There is a sense from the authors that he is not really secure in his true self or his positions on many issues. He is somewhat of an enigma to even those closest to him. Is he stiff and wooden, or is he a fun-loving guy who is different when the cameras go off? Is he a loyal-to-a-fault vice president, or a disgusted father who cringed at the Lewinsky scandal and wanted to distance himself? This book clearly raises as many questions about Al Gore as it answers. All the facts are here...born in Carthage, raised in two states, congressman, senator, etc. But if you hope by the end of the book that you will truly *know* Al Gore better than before, you might be a tad let down.

The authors leave little doubt as to the intelligence and abilities of Al Gore -- a qualified man, ready to be president. THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE is a good read in this election year. Love him, hate him or undecided -- this book is a very good biography that is fair and balanced.

I was a huge Al Gore supporter, and then I read this book... and I still am a Gore supporter. It was great to finally understand the man and why he acts the way he does. This provides a very in-depth look at his character and personality, and why he has that tendency to "stretch" the truth a bit.

The section about Gore's service in Vietnam also answers many questions. Gore actually was affected by the experience, and that's no lie.

I have decided from reading this book that Gore will definitely run again in 2004, and the reason I think so deals with his father. Read the book and you'll agree.

As a foreigner who has seen the US from abroad throughout the last decade, I must say I was very disapointed by this book. How is it possible to create so much garbage and put it indise a cover, and then get it sold?!!! For a long time I followed the US-debate over the Clintons. And for a long time I thought Hillary Clinton's acusations about a conspiracy was a bit over the top. But after reading this I am in no doubt: The Clintons have recieved a lot more negativety than they deserve! And thruth be told, Bill Clinton was a leader we in the rest of the world had confidence in. He was though on behalf of his nation, but he was a leader in wich we felt trust.

The Clinton Enigma is misnamed. The book is not about an enigma at all - the theory about Clinton is that he's all too predictable. The only real mystery that Maraniss struggles with is why some people so viscerally hate Bill Clinton. This book won't do much to diminish that hatred, but it seems less written out of hate than disappointment and frustration. But Maraniss' frustration seems driven by Clinton's avoidance of him. This may have some metaphorical application for the rest of us, but it's a somewhat misleading motivation to write this mini-biography in the middle of the Monica incident. The book is worthwhile as a brief, speculative psycho-biography of Clinton, but it won't endure. Its more like New Yorker article written in the middle of a story that is very much in play. Less than two years later, the book is well out of date. Still, at 110 pages it's hardly a waste of time to read.

Maraniss did such a good job in his full-scope Clinton biography ("First In His Class") that if you've read it you'd (almost) be able to come up with a summary of your own to explain his 4-minute speech, which is nominally the subject of the Clinton Enigma. There's very little new in this book to be missed if you have not read it. What is new is in the first 13 pages (Chapters 1-4 of the first part of the book), where Maraniss mentions his own experiences with Clinton (or rather: the lack of them) when trying to arrange an interview with him, immediately prior and also after his biography was published. The manners and maneuvers Clinton and his aides applied and Maraniss' reaction provide a valuable supplement to understanding Clinton, but also Maraniss.

The weakness of this book for those who have read the biography is also an advantage for those who haven't and if you are not as interested in Clinton to devote yourself to reading 500 pages of the biography you will appreciate its summarized version in the Clinton Enigma.