Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch discusses his account of President Clinton's confidential diary project, a unique collaboration, aimed to preserve the fullest record of a pivotal president.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Harold Jackson moderates.
Bio
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch is an American author and public speaker best known for his narrative history of the civil rights era, America in the King Years. The trilogy’s first book, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards in 1989. Two successive volumes also gained critical and popular success: Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65, and At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968. In October 2011, The Atlantic published Branch’s capsule history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA): “The Shame of College Sports.” When that essay sparked national debate, Byliner.com released an expanded e-book version called The Cartel, which is available online or by print-on-demand. Branch’s 2009 memoir, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, tells of his unprecedented eight-year project to gather a sitting president’s comprehensive oral history on tape.
Harold Jackson
Harold Jackson is the editor of the editorial page at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He became deputy editor of The Inquirer's Editorial Page in 2004, after being cooordinator of the newspaper's zoned daily commentary and Sunday Voices pages.
Jackson has also been an editorial writer at the Baltimore Sun and the Birmingham (Ala.) News. While at the News, he and two colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1991 for a series on changing Alabama's tax system. He also worked for United Press International and the Birmingham Post-Herald.
Taylor Branch, author of The Clinton Tapes, recounts the Clinton family's behavior behind the scenes during the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment trial. "Hillary felt more strongly against impeachment than the President did," says Branch.