[4][5][6] Existence of a new Clinton work was first revealed in February 2017, but at the time it was billed as a volume of essays centered around the author's favorite sayings, with only some allusions to the campaign.

[7][8][9] Financial terms of that work, which had no announced title, were not publicly disclosed but industry observers expected her monetary compensation to be large.

[17] It is organized into six main parts, titled: Perseverance, Competition, Sisterhood, Idealism and Realism, Frustration, and Resilience.

[18] After the introduction, the book opens with a scene from the United States presidential inauguration of 2017,[17] attended by Clinton and her husband, where she watched President Donald Trump take office.

I thought that of all the people who might run, I had the most relevant experience, meaningful accomplishments, and ambitious but achievable proposals, as well as the temperament to get things done in Washington.

[22] "Our national campaign staff [were] living and working on a tight budget..." She revealed that the average donation was $100 and that the majority were from women.

[23] She also describes campaigning in hostile areas of the country, like Mingo County, West Virginia, "Ground Zero for the coal crisis.

"[25] In the book, also, Clinton tries to explain the combination of factors that led to her electoral loss, including James Comey, Vladimir Putin, Mitch McConnell, The New York Times, NBC,[26] WikiLeaks,[27] the American media as a whole,[28] sexism, white resentment, Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and herself, specifically her comments on putting "coal miners out of business" and labeling some of her opponent's supporters as a "basket of deplorables".

[29][17][30] She noted that President Obama worried that extending the handover process after Trump's win would be bad for the country.

"[31] The book contains a number of Clinton's policy proposals, featuring her analysis of a problem area and her ideas for how to solve it[32] like resolving the issues of climate change[33] and securing the vote.

Clinton discusses her practice of yoga and her liking of chardonnay,[36] but in particular, she lists a large number of books that helped her cope with the loss in one way or another.

These included mysteries by Louise Penny, Jacqueline Winspear, Donna Leon, and Caroline and Charles Todd.

They also included the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante, the spiritual works of Henri Nouwen, and the collected poems of Maya Angelou, Marge Piercy and T. S.

"[37] The hardcover edition was published on September 12, 2017; it immediately went to the top of the Barnes & Noble, Amazon,[38] and USA Today bestseller lists.

[53] On the primary Irish Nielsen BookScan chart tracking sales of both hardcover and paperback books in all genres, What Happened debuted at number ten (selling 767 copies).

It is a candid and blackly funny account of her mood in the direct aftermath of losing to President Donald J. Trump.

The Hillary Clinton of this bitter memoir ... again and again ... blames herself for losing, apologizing for her 'dumb' email management, for giving paid speeches to banks, for saying she would put coal miners 'out of business.'

"[70] A review in the Chicago Tribune by Heidi Stevens stated that the passages in the book about Russia's involvement in the US election "read like a spy novel".

It spends more time on descriptions of Clinton's various post-election coping strategies, which include chardonnay and "alternative nostril breathing," than it does on her campaign decisions in the Midwest.

It is written for her fans, in other words, and not for those who want real answers about her campaign, and who worry that the Democratic Party is learning the wrong lessons from the 2016 debacle.

"[72] A 2019 study in the journal Perspectives on Politics tried to evaluate the veracity of reasons that Clinton presented for her loss in the 2016 election.

[73] The study found that "more often than not, HRC’s assumptions are supported" but that there was little evidence that the e-mail scandal, including FBI Director James Comey’s intervention shortly before Election Day, contributed to her loss.

Clinton scheduled more than thirty appearances in cities across the United States and Canada as part of an official book tour which lasted through December 2017.

[83] In the United States, some of the book tour's stops were located relatively near Chappaqua, New York, where Clinton maintains her personal residence.