As Bill Clinton's political and business mentor, Jim McDougal, with his knowledge of embarrassing real-estate and banking deals, bribes, and obstructions of justice, long haunted the White House. McDougal's vivid self-portrait, completed only days before his death and coauthored by veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie, reveals the hidden intersections of politics and special interests in Arkansas and the betrayals that followed.
It is the story of how ambitious men and women climbed out of rural obscurity and "how friendships break down and lives are ruined". Anecdotes fall like bright coins from a raconteur's rich purse.
"Whitewater" is shown for what it was, a venture in land speculation that fell victim to mismanagement and high interest rates. Lies and cover-ups were the inevitable result.
Vintage political history, Arkansas Mischief is a southern tragedy with lessons for us all.
