Cracked but Not Shattered Hillary Rodham Clinton's Unsuccessful Campaign for the Presidency

Cracked But Not Shattered: Hillary Clinton's Unsuccessful Campaign for the Presidency thoroughly analyzes Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination with an eye to identifying what went wrong-why, despite initially being the frontrunner, she failed to break "the glass ceiling." The volume's contributors attempt to answer this question by examining multiple issues, from usual campaign communication topics such as Clinton's rhetoric, debate performance, and advertising to the ways the media treated her. While acknowledging that her communication during the campaign was flawed and that the media coverage of her reflected biases, these essays demonstrate that Clinton's campaign was in trouble from the start because of her gender, status as a former First Lady, and the fact that she is half of a powerful political couple. Cracked But Not Shattered provides keen insight into the historic 2008 Democratic primaries that will particularly intrigue scholars and students of political communications. Book jacket.

Theodore F. Sheckels is A. G. Ingram Professor of English at Randolph-Macon College.