Rating: 
Summary: It's Deja Vu All Over Again
Review: [Reviewer's Note - I recently received a message from the author of this book, Robert McNeely. He said that I have no right to criticize his work, and that Amazon.com's book forum should not be used for negative reviews. Imagine these words coming from a "photo journalist"! As a parting shot, he added that Ronald Reagan was just an actor, and photographers such as him didn't like working with Reagan. From his note, I can understand why Robert McNeely and Bill Clinton were made for one another.]Back in the 1970s, a friend of mine who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Romania gave me with a book about Nicolae Ceausescu (published in Romania, but written in English and Russian). It was a picture book detailing all of the triumphs and accomplishments of the Ceausescus, who were celebrating their 20th year in power. The photographs were all black and white, just like this book. There was Ceausescu galore, with his reactions to key moments and events in Romania, and tributes to his prowess as a politician, his personal charisma and presence, and his interactions with world leaders. As I browsed the pages of this book, I had an eerie feeling of deja vu. The slavish fawning over the Ceausescus has been recreated right here in this book by Robert McNeely, but with Bill And Hillary Clinton replacing the once-omnipotent leader of Romania. Scary to think that this could happen in America, but here is living proof. Everything here looks staged, from the meetings with his key advisors to the PR shots of Clinton deep in thought. I would have much preferred a book with photographs from many photographers crossing Clinton's lifetime, such as the photo book "Ronald Reagan - His Life in Pictures". This makes journalistic bias much harder to pull off. Instead, "The Clinton Years" is a toady work that conjures up images of Heinrich Hoffman and Leni Riefenstahl at work photographing Hitler. Pure propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: It's Deja Vu All Over Again
Review: [Reviewer's Note - I recently received a message from the author of this book, Robert McNeely. He said that I have no right to criticize his work, and that Amazon.com's book forum should not be used for negative reviews. Imagine these words coming from a "photo journalist"! As a parting shot, he added that Ronald Reagan was just an actor, and photographers such as him didn't like working with Reagan. From his note, I can understand why Robert McNeely and Bill Clinton were made for one another.] Back in the 1970s, a friend of mine who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Romania gave me with a book about Nicolae Ceausescu (published in Romania, but written in English and Russian). It was a picture book detailing all of the triumphs and accomplishments of the Ceausescus, who were celebrating their 20th year in power. The photographs were all black and white, just like this book. There was Ceausescu galore, with his reactions to key moments and events in Romania, and tributes to his prowess as a politician, his personal charisma and presence, and his interactions with world leaders. As I browsed the pages of this book, I had an eerie feeling of deja vu. The slavish fawning over the Ceausescus has been recreated right here in this book by Robert McNeely, but with Bill And Hillary Clinton replacing the once-omnipotent leader of Romania. Scary to think that this could happen in America, but here is living proof. Everything here looks staged, from the meetings with his key advisors to the PR shots of Clinton deep in thought. I would have much preferred a book with photographs from many photographers crossing Clinton's lifetime, such as the photo book "Ronald Reagan - His Life in Pictures". This makes journalistic bias much harder to pull off. Instead, "The Clinton Years" is a toady work that conjures up images of Heinrich Hoffman and Leni Riefenstahl at work photographing Hitler. Pure propaganda.
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