The Negotiator

May 1, 2015
From the U.S. Senate to the trouble spots of the Middle East and Ireland to corporate entanglements, Mitchell has earned a reputation as a strong negotiator. In this memoir, he traces his skills to a lifetime of challenges, great and small, since his childhood in an industrial town in Maine. He was one of five children in a family of Lebanese and Irish immigrant background. Mitchell recounts the lessons he learned as an altar boy, his time at Bowdoin College and in the army. After law school, he went to work for U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie and survived the ups and downs of politics to eventually gain the seat for himself. Mitchell recounts legislative battles for the environment, health care reform, and the Iran-Contra hearings. Later, he put his skills to work in assignments as varied as chairman of Walt Disney Company and baseball commissioner investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs. A natural storyteller, Mitchell offers fascinating stories from his long and varied careers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)