Imprisoned for two years after refusing to testify in the Whitewater investigation, McDougall tells her story for the first time--a disturbing account by an ordinary woman whose fateful choices turned democracy against her. photos.

How a small-town Arkansas girl became a nationally known felon is one of the more troubling legacies of the Clinton era. After all, Susan McDougal grew up making patriotic speeches at the local American Legion. But in the mid-1990s, she was faced with federal prosecutors who wanted her to lie -- and threatened to jail her if she would not. Though willing to answer any questions truthfully, she couldn't give investigators a hook on which to hang Bill Clinton -- so they ruined her life step by punishing step. Frightened and depressed, facing financial ruin, she had a choice: Lie and get your life back, or tell the truth and face jail on bogus perjury charges. In an extraordinary act of conscience she chose silence, which she has finally broken in this revealing book. Written in a frank and often humorous tone, McDougal offers fresh anecdotes about the Clintons' early years in politics, an up-close account of the sinister workings of Starr's investigation, and a moving expose of what happens to women in American prisons. For millions who felt Starr was pushing his partisan investigation too far, Susan McDougal was not only an American heroine, but a symbol -- the face of the ordinary citizen who stood up to bureaucratic power despite the toll. This tale of abused power also charts an extraordinary personal journey of redemption. A must-read for history buffs, political junkies, Democratic loyalists, women's rights advocates, and anyone who followed Susan's travails in the news, The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk will change the way we remember the '90s.