Carl Bernstein

Bob Woodward

All the President's Men

Chris Dailey

Behind the scenes of the Scandal of the Century. Fascinating look at how two journalists build a story and follow the leads. Made me wish I could see it live in 1973.

Patrick Book

Laura Mauler

Absolutely fantastic. This book went a good way in restoring my faith in the field of journalism, which had plummeted during the past 6 or 7 years due to today's sloppy and biased reporting. Seeing the lengths Woodward and Bernstein went to in order to corroborate information (at least 3 sources) was refreshing, especially given that today reporters regularly quote a pair of anonymous Twitter accounts and call it a story. Eye-opening, compelling read. Highly recommend.

Colleen

3.5 Stars
 
For March, my bookclub voted to read All the President's Men about the Watergate presidential scandal. The events of Watergate probably need no introduction. The book blurb or a quick internet search will catch you up if you are not familiar with them. The book tells the story how journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward uncovered the events of Watergate.
 
This book represents one of the biggest political scandals in American history. It is undeniably an important book. But I was not ever captivated by it and certainly never felt “the exhilarating rush” as the book blurb advertised. Part of that was because I’m viewing these events from the twenty-first century. This scandal obviously shocked the nation when it occurred, but I’ve heard about it all my life. I’ve studied it in school. And while there certainly was an abundance of minutia in the book, the only fact I can truly say I learned was that Bernstein and Woodward worked on breaking this story for much longer than I’d realized. But the revolving door of obsolete politicians? Nope, none of that stuck in my mind other than that it certainly was a boys’ club. Well, it is the President’s men in a literal sense.
 
Writing a newspaper article is completely different from writing a book. At least, it should be. Bernstein and Woodward approached the writing of this book as if it were just a lengthy newspaper article. So that is what it feels like. There are choppy parts where pieces don’t flow together. Threads get lost. The narrative jumps around in a way that probably seemed obvious to the author’s but less so to a reader over forty years later. There were also a LOT of different people to keep track of. Some are mentioned once then never brought up again. The edition I read had some pictures but only of key players. There was no comprehensive list or timeline included.
 
It was weird that the authors wrote about themselves in third person. Yes, that may have given the book a more journalistic feel, but it portrayed a false sense of objectivity. Unlike their articles, the book features the actions of the authors themselves. So although it is not written in memoir style, it still has characteristics of a memoir.
 
I wonder at what point the authors realized that the two biggest terms from this story—Watergate and Deep Throat—would both end up being mutated by the general public who now throw “-gate” at the end of anything remotely scandalous. And, well, you know the connotation of the other one.
 
This is a good book if you are really interested in politics or journalism. Although, since this is about Bernstein and Woodward uncovering the scandal, the book ends abruptly and does not address any of what occurred after the story broke. So if you what to know more about the political impact, you’ll have to do some more digging. I’m glad I read it, but honestly in more of a “check that off the books to read in your lifetime list” than out of burning curiosity.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars
Attention to Details: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Objectivity: 3 Stars

Douglas E. Welch

Read it in about 2 days! It is a factual thriller

Even though I was alive during the period, as a child I was only mildly aware of what was happening and what danger the country was in. 

I do remember, election night 1972, telling a friend that I didn’t like Nixon. He seemed off somehow. My friend, whose parents were strong Nixon supporters, took great offense at that, but the feeling never left me and, eventually was proven true.

Jeremy Anderberg

The book that brought down a president . . . or at least that’s how it’s commonly portrayed. While there were other machinations at play, the famous Washington Post duo did indeed play a big role in at least the public’s perception of what was happening in Washington in the tumultuous mid-70s. (Any readers have memories of when this book came out? I’d love to hear anecdotes about what it meant at the time.)

And of course the parallels to our very current situation are obvious. That was in fact the bulk of our book club discussion of this one (we’ve gotten into a habit of reading something in the political realm each January). Trump and his loyal staff are, in many ways, copying Nixon and his loyal staff move for move.

There’s no denying the cultural importance of All the President’s Men. At the time, it was groundbreaking reporting, gave names to previously anonymous sources, and played a role in the unraveling of Nixon’s administration. There were times it read like a thriller and the dogged reporting is impressive (and even exhausting) to read about.

But . . . as a classic work of non-fiction to be read by each passing generation — which is how it’s often touted — is not a characterization that rightly applies. At least in my book. It’s too long (by quite a bit) and the endless spewing of names is hard for the modern reader to keep track of. The better option, which I’ve not yet found, would be to read a broader history of the scandal which doesn’t assume the reader has all the background knowledge of living in that time period. You can’t blame Bernstein and Woodward for that; it’s just the nature of investigative journalism. It’s naturally more important to the cultural zeitgeist in the moment than decades down the road (when it becomes more of a historical artifact).

All in all, I enjoyed the book enough (as did most of book club), but found it just a little lacking as something I’d recommend to others.

Investigation and report of the burglary at the Watergate Hotel that culminated with President Richard Nixon's resignation from office.

All the President's men

Lisa Miller

Fascinating. If you like the movie then you would enjoy this as it has the same fractured frantic pace. The movie covered the first half of the book, when it was primarily Bernstein and Woodward pursuing the story in the months between the Watergate break-in in June 1972 and the 1972 election in November. They didn't know what exactly they were investigating, where it would lead, and were handicapped by the determination of the White House to crush them. The second half of the book recounts the rest of the unfolding story, when it became a national/international sensation, and led to the resignation of the President and years of study of the infamous Nixon Tapes. It was an interesting shift from spending hours hunting down and developing trusted sources on a story no one cared about (Nixon won the 72 election in a land-slide in the middle of this), from being the sole reporters to seeing other publications beating them to a new development, to officials high and low leaking everything to try and save themselves and everyone, media and public alike lapping it all up.

Kay Sutherland

Erika

Mia Hamilton

Aditi

THIS IS THE BOOK THAT CHANGED AMERICA Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming -- delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for "The Washington Post" and toppled the President. THESE ARE THE AUTHORS WHO INTRODUCED US TO THE WORDS "DEEP THROAT."

All the President's Men

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