My Name is Whitney Houston: The Voice That Reached the World I was born August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Music was already waiting for me when I arrived. My mother, Cissy Houston, was a remarkable gospel and soul singer, and singers like Dionne Warwick were part of my family. I grew up hearing gospel music in church, and that is where I first learned what singing really meant. It wasn't just about hitting a note. You had to feel what you were singing. You had to believe

MTV, Grunge, Hip-Hop, and the Changing Sound of the 1990s The 1990s were a decade when music seemed to change almost overnight. New sounds moved from local clubs and city neighborhoods to millions of radios, televisions, and CD players across the country. MTV had become one of the most powerful forces in youth culture, music videos could turn unknown performers into international stars, grunge challenged the polished sound of the 1980s, and hip-hop grew from a powerful urban

My Name is Fred Rogers: A Neighbor to Generations of Children I was born on March 20, 1928, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I was a rather shy child, and I spent a good deal of time indoors because I was often sick. When you are a child who cannot always run outside with everyone else, you begin to notice things. You notice feelings. You notice loneliness. You notice how much it means when someone takes the time to listen to you. Music became one of my closest friends, and I learne

The 1990s American Family: Home Life in a Changing Nation Families still gathered around kitchen tables, children called friends on landline telephones, and refrigerators were covered with school papers, photographs, calendars, and magnets. Yet American households were changing. More mothers were working outside the home, single-parent and blended families were increasingly visible, and computers and new forms of communication were beginning to alter family routines. For mill

My Name is Kenneth Starr: From the Courtroom to the Investigation of a President Much of my life was devoted to a proposition that sounds simple but is demanding in practice: the law must govern those who exercise power as surely as it governs everyone else. From Texas to the Law I was born in 1946 in Vernon, Texas, and grew up in a religious household that placed great importance on faith, education, and personal responsibility. I attended George Washington University, ear

Whitewater: The Investigation That Followed Clinton to Washington (1992–1996) What began as a small real-estate investment in the Arkansas Ozarks eventually became one of the most famous political investigations of the 1990s. The story involved failed property investments, a collapsed savings and loan, questionable financial transactions, congressional hearings, federal prosecutors, and people close to President Bill Clinton. Yet one of the most important lessons of Whitewate

My Name is Lloyd Bentsen: Secretary of the Treasury I spent much of my life believing that government ought to be judged not merely by what it promises, but by whether it produces results. I was a Texan, a businessman, a congressman, a senator, a vice-presidential candidate, and finally Secretary of the Treasury. I came from a generation that experienced depression, world war, economic expansion, and enormous political change. Through it all, I developed a fairly simple convi

The Economy Clinton Inherited: Recession Recovery, Debt, and a $290 Billion Deficit When Bill Clinton entered the White House in January 1993, the United States was not technically in a recession. The recession of 1990–1991 had already ended, and the economy was growing again. Yet for millions of Americans, the recovery did not feel particularly strong. Jobs had been slow to return, unemployment remained high, and Washington faced a federal budget deficit approaching $300 bil

My Name is Alice Rivlin: Making Government Work I spent much of my life asking a question that sounds simple but rarely is: How can government make better decisions? I was an economist, but numbers were never merely numbers to me. A federal budget represents choices—about taxes, defense, health care, education, assistance to families, and the obligations one generation leaves to the next. My career took me from academic research to Congress, the White House, the Federal Reser

Clinton's First Two Years: What Should the Federal Government Do? (1993–1994) When Bill Clinton entered the White House in January 1993, he arrived at an unusual moment in American history. The Cold War had ended, the Soviet Union was gone, and Americans were increasingly turning their attention toward problems at home. Clinton entered office with a Democratic-controlled House and Senate, giving his party control of both Congress and the presidency. But behind nearly every ma