Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption

by Jules Witcover

Overview

Now with four new chapters that explore Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign; his sparring with Trump, both in and out of the debates; and his ultimate election as the 46th president of the United States

Raised in the working-class towns of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, and with lackluster grades in school and no particular goals, Joe Biden shocked the nation in 1972 when he became one of the youngest elected senators in U.S. history. Over the course of more than four decades, he carved a legacy for himself as one of the most respected legislators in the country before going on to serve as the vice president under Barack Obama and ultimately taking up the office of president in his own right.

Yet Biden’s political success has been matched by personal tragedy and countless challenges. Within two months of being elected in 1972, Biden lost his wife, Neilia, and his young daughter in a tragic accident—a loss that brought him to the nadir of despair and shook his resolve to stay in politics. He suffered two brain aneurysms and career-threatening gaffes and miscues. In 2015, he lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer. These difficult trials left him a more compassionate man, particularly suited for “the battle for America’s soul” in the midst of the nationwide divisiveness brought to a head by President Trump.

Based on exhaustive research by one of Washington’s most prolific journalists, including numerous exclusive interviews with Biden’s confidants and family members, as well as President Obama and the former vice president himself, Joe Biden goes beyond conventional biography to track the forces that have shaped a man whose plainspoken style and inspiring life story have resonated with millions of Americans and whose work has shaped modern American life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062014337
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/17/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	587
Sales rank:	396,913
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jules Witcover has been writing from Washington on politics and history since 1954, first for the Newhouse Newspapers, then the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Star and Baltimore Sun, and his column is syndicated by the [Chicago] Tribune Company. His twenty books include 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy, The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power, The Resurrection of Richard Nixon, The Year the Dream Died: Revisitng 1968 in America, accounts of the presidential elections from 1976 through 1992, and biographies of Vice Presidents Spiro Agnew and Joe Biden. 

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Scranton 4

2 Wilmington 18

3 Building a Dream 29

4 The Making of a Politician 47

5 David and Goliath 72

6 The Dream Shattered 91

7 A Fresh Start 101

8 Finding Himself, and Jill 116

9 Civil Rights, Jimmy Carter, and Reelection 132

10 Moving on to the National Stage 143

11 Joe Biden for President 157

12 A Judicial Intrusion 170

13 Debacle in Iowa 186

14 Concentrating on Bork 197

15 A Costly Victory 219

16 Down but Not Out 233

17 Holding Out for Peace 248

18 Clarence and Anita 255

19 In Search of Truth and Fairness 269

20 Cozy Corporate Capital of America 290

21 Fighting Crime and Abuses of Power 303

22 Senate Globe-trotter 317

23 Wars of Necessity and Choice 334

24 Reassessing a Quagmire 355

25 Biden for President Again 372

26 A Questionable Prize 394

27 An Offer He Couldn't Refuse 404

28 Vice President Biden 435

29 The Second Obama Term 478

30 The Decision to Run a Third Time 490

Epilogue: Fulfilling the Promise 500

Acknowledgments 507

Notes 511

Bibliography 543

Index 549

Editorial Reviews

…a celebratory recitation of the major private and public moments of the vice president's life. Biden's rich and sometimes controversial career mirrors the policy achievements and political failures of the Democratic Party in modern times, and Joe Biden can also be read as a meditation on his party's troubled and occasionally triumphant trajectory since the 1960s.
—The Washington Post

Matthew Dallek

Veteran political commentator Witcover (Very Strange Bedfellows: The Short and Unhappy Marriage of Nixon & Agnew) chronicles Vice President Joe Biden's growth as a political operative, his personal tragedies and political triumphs, his mistakes, and his disappointments. The biography stretches from his childhood, unlikely 1972 senatorial election, presidential campaigns, and work on the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, through his first year as Vice President. The book relies heavily on excerpts from speeches, interviews, and books by Biden (notably, Promises To Keep: On Life and Politics), plus family members, friends, and political associates, as it traces Biden's efforts to redeem himself and refute the perception that he is glib, gaffe-prone, ambitious, hotheaded, long-winded, dishonest, and superficial. Witcover repeatedly acknowledges but excuses Biden's shortcomings as both failings as well as assets, presenting him as an independently minded person of integrity, honor, family devotion, and chutzpah; a champion of civil rights, women's issues, and law enforcement; a shrewd foreign affairs expert; and a dedicated, experienced, and vital participant in the Obama administration.Verdict This first Biden biography will appeal to political enthusiasts. Recommended for public and undergraduate collections. [See Prepub Exploded, 5/20/10.]—Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

Library Journal