Product Description

The 25th-anniversary edition of Bernstein and Woodward's classic of investigative journalism.

In what must be the most devastating political detective story of the century, two young Washington Post reporters whose brilliant investigative journalism smashed the Watergate scandal wide open tell the whole behind-the-scenes drama the way it really happened.

The story begins with a burglary at Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972. Bob Woodward, who was then working on the Washington Post's District of Columbia staff, was called into the office on a Saturday morning to cover the story. Carl Bernstein, a Virginia political reporter on the Post, was also assigned. The two men soon learned that this was not a simple burglary.

Following lead after lead, Woodward and Bernstein picked up a trail of money, secrecy and high-level pressure that led to the Oval Office and implicated the men closest to Richard Nixon and then the President himself. Over the months, Woodward met secretly with Deep Throat, now perhaps America's most famous still-anonymous source.

Here is the amazing story. From the first suspicions through the tortuous days of reporting and finally getting people to talk, the journalists were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and produce the stories that won the Post a Pulitzer Prize. All the President's Men is the inside story of how Bernstein and Woodward broke the story that brought about the President's downfall. This is the reporting that changed the American presidency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #358682 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
The New Republic Much more than a "hot book." It is splendid reading...of enormous value....A very human story. -- Review

Review
The New York TimesA fast-moving mystery, a whodunit written with ease....A remarkable book.

Dan RatherAn authentic thriller.

Publishers WeeklyExhilarating and candid...trip-hammer reportage.

The Denver PostFascinating, stimulating....One of the greatest detective stories ever told.

The New RepublicMuch more than a 'hot book.' It is splendid reading...of enormous value....A very human story.

About the Author
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's Watergate coverage won the Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. In 1974 they published All the President's Men, the story of how they exposed the scandal. This number one bestseller was followed by another, The Final Days, in 1976.

Carl Bernstein went on to write Loyalties: A Son's Memoir (1989) and to coauthor His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time with Marco Politi (1996). His articles have appeared in the New Republic, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Newsweek, and Time, among other publications. He is also a consultant to CBS News. Since 1996 he has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Bernstein lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Deep Throat Divulged
With the recent revelation that second-in-command FBI agent Mark Felt was indeed, as often conjectured, "Deep Throat," Woodward and Bernstein's "All the President's Men" is sure to experience a revival of interest. And why not? It is riveting writing with the cloak-and-danger stuff that would make Ian Fleming jealous.

The opening words of the opening chapter lure in readers. "June 17, 1972. Nine o'clock Saturday morning. Early for the telephone. Woodward fumbled for the receiver and snapped awake. The city editor of the Washington Post was on the line. Five men had been arrested earlier that morning in a burglary at Democratic headquarters, carrying photographic equipment and electronic gear. Could he come in?"

The break-neck pace never stops. Page after page-turning-page, Woodward and Bernstein offer the political detective story of the century with their Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation that smashed the Watergate scandal wide open. In the process, they expose the inner workings of the Washington power elite and the inner workings of a paranoid President who approves a bungling burglary to seal an election that was never in doubt in the first place.

Buy it today. Or, dust off your old copy. This is water-cooler talk and you don't want to be left out.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Martin Luther: Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective," "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

One of American Journalisms Finest Hours
What is largely forgotten is that in the summer of 1972, Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein were two young but complete nobody reporters assigned not to political reporting but the Washington Post's Metro section. When they were assigned to cover a "fourth rate burglary" at the Watergate Hotel, it changed the course of their careers and of American History. It is no exaggeration that had more conventional Washington political reporters been assigned to the Watergate story, it might never have been exposed in enough detail to bring down Richard Nixon. This book is an American classic. Though it lacks historical perspective on the Watergate affair, it is vital to anyone who wants to understand the greatest American political crisis of the Post World War Two era.

...Couldn't put Nixon together again
Time has not dulled the impact of "All the President's Men". It's been thirty years, now, since the thwarted break-in at the Watergate. Most of the higher-ups in President Nixon's administration have passed away, and subsequent generations reared on Iran-Contra and Whitewater may not even remember what the fuss was about. But from the very first page of this book, history becomes life and events rush forward to the inevitable conclusion that still seems impossible today.

Woodward and Bernstein's reporting is the major thrust of the first half of "President's". We watch both reporters work late into the night, interviewing reluctant and/or anonymous witnesses in an attempt to find out just why the Watergate burglars had connections with the White House, and how far up the political chain of command those men were connected. Along the way, mistakes are made and a reputations are wrongfully derailed. But the story -- the crimes and the subsequent cover-ups may have indeed been directed by the President of the United States himself! -- takes on a life of its own, and Woodward and Bernstein become witness to the defining story of an era.

Much of "All the President's Men" has passed into legend, especially the unrevealed identity of Woodward's executive branch contact known only as "Deep Throat". The Watergate players to this day still debate just who Deep Throat was -- John Dean seems to publish a book on the subject every five years. Time has proven most of the accusations correct -- for an interesting exercise, try comparing Woodward's and Bernstein's discoveries with the corresponding daily entries in "The Haldeman Diaries"). The book gives so few clues as to make the exercise nearly impossible, even to those of us who've read all there is to read about Watergate and Nixon. Was it John Dean? Alexander Haig? Perpetual Nixon apologist Bill Safire? The answer will be made known in my lifetime, but I would like to think sooner rather than later.

Although 30 years is a short time in American history, in politics it can be a lifetime. The meticulous triple and quadruple-checking of the Washington Post staff has given way to the unfounded accusations that support a half-dozen instant political bestsellers. Certainly no-one uses the passive voice quite as monotonously as do Woodward and Bernstein. These defects, however, are minor: the antics of Colson and Liddy and Haldeman and even the amusing capers of Donald Segretti remain fascinating in print even today.

When you're done with "All the President's Men", I recommend "The Final Days" (by Woodward and Bernstein) and "The Haldeman Diaries", and then the rebuttal books put out by Nixon staffers such as Haig and Erlichman.