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I received the book by the end of the week that I order it and it was in excellent condition.
Only later, when I went back and looked a little deeper, did I discover just what gross exagerations and outright falsehoods this account holds. Look, as a recent graduated History Major, I obviously have no real full time job. There is not the room here, but time after time I have found cited sources that have said, on the record, that they were either mis-quoted or flat out rewritten. As a pet project, suggested to me by one of my professors, I have researched and re-read most, if not all of the Nixon era material. At first read, this is a gripping account, almost impossible to put down. Entire episodes that are supposedly 'first hand' experiences turn out in some cases to be nothing more that 3rd hand falsehoods. Re-read in this light, the book takes on the color and feel of a smear job.
this book provides incredible detail to what nixon was doing and saying during his impeachment process. it really is incredible how the authors were able to piece this all together
Surely it is not hard to work out who spilled the beans in these stories and one would think that the politicians would be more circumspect in what they say. This was a book that was unexpectedly emotional. The story of Richard Nixon and his battle to remain President felt just so real, this book made Nixon appear extremely human while the public vision of him was of a man with no self-doubt and full confidence in his abilities.I am always surprised by the amount of insider knowledge that the authors find. The book itself is not as fast moving as other Woodward/Bernstein collaborations but it is a solid read about an interesting time in the US Presidency. It gave me additional respect for Nixon.
Both instances also point out one major fact of the American political landscape. The greatest message of the book is the demonstration of how powerful and resilient the American political system is. Bush. The American body politic cuts the president a great deal of error slack. It is one more demonstration of how extraordinary the writers of the American constitution were. In this book, they describe the final days of the Nixon presidency and how the people involved tried to salvage what value they could and move on to the next phase.
Woodward and Bernstein were the reporting team that kept the Watergate story alive and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation.
No matter what they achieve or how high their popularity, if a President does the wrong things, they can crash down with great force.
The highest government official in the United States was a party to criminal acts and was removed without a shot being fired.
We witnessed that during the Watergate years of Richard Nixon and we see it again in the presidency of George W.
Despite the slow pace of discovery, tortuous maneuvers by the prosecution and countermoves by the Nixon defense team, the system worked and worked well.
This book is one of the greatest political chronicles of all time.
So great that no fiction writer could possibly create a story with such dynamism, force and sheer magnitude.
There are few countries in the world where that could have taken place.
Despite all of the changes in how the world works, advances in technology and other marvels of the age, a system put in place nearly two hundred years earlier functioned to near perfection.
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