Libertines: American Political Sex Scandals from Alexander Hamilton to Donald Trump

Historian Martinez (A Long Dark Night) asks why American politicians keep getting caught with their pants down in this brisk roundup of sexual imbroglios. Covering more than 200 years of U.S. history, from Alexander Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds to Donald Trump’s tryst with Stormy Daniels, Martinez sketches the origins, unmasking, and ramifications of each scandal. For instance, he details how Andrew Jackson’s belief that political attacks against his wife, Rachel, contributed to her death in 1828 led to his obsession with protecting his secretary of war’s new wife when she was shunned by Washington, D.C., society. Jackson’s decision to shake up his cabinet to punish those who had ostracized the woman fueled accusations that he “could not govern effectively.” Elsewhere, Martinez recounts the undoing of Sen. Gary Hart’s 1987 presidential campaign by stories of his “relentless womanizing”; Sen. Bob Packwood’s “long, dismal record of unwanted kissing, touching, and groping women”; and special prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s expansion of the Whitewater inquiry to investigate Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Though Martinez sheds little light on what motivates public figures to take such risks (beyond a belief that “the normal rules of behavior” don’t apply to them), his history lessons are concise and well informed. This sober-minded survey shows that political sex scandals are as old as the U.S. (June)