ISO: A comprehensive history of Watergate and Nixon's resignation

February 27, 2018 2:30 PM

If I were to read just one book about Watergate and the end of the Nixon presidency, what should it be?

My entire knowledge of Watergate comes from a read of All The President's Men many years ago and a more recent listen to Slate's Slow Burn podcast. As much of a cultural document as ATPM is, it doesn't cover Nixon's resignation and its aftermath, and of course does not contain information that was not public when it was published in 1974 (e.g. Mark Felt's identity as Deep Throat - I would love to know more about his motivations and background). And although Slow Burn is excellent, it explicitly doesn't set out to tell a comprehensive story of Watergate, spending time on some of the lesser-known stories and characters rather than giving a chronological account of the scandal. what is the best recent single-volume history of Watergate and Nixon's fall?

I found two similar previous questions. The second is most like what I'm looking for but is from 2008 and there may have been significant new books published in the last 10 years. The most relevant books suggested in the answers to these two questions are listed below, along with why I think they don't fit what I'm looking for. Any comments on them would be appreciated as well as suggestions of others.

• Nixonland (ends with Nixon's reelection in 1972)
• Watergate, a novel (fiction I presume, not what I'm looking for)
• 31 Days (covers August 1974 but little of the detail of what came before)
• The Final Days (picks up where ATPM leaves off but published in 1976)

I'm interested primarily in the scandal and its aftermath rather than a Nixon biography, although if that's the best way for me to get what I'm looking for I'm open to that too. What would you suggest?

posted by fawaffle to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Sorry for not answering the question, I'm also interested in seeing a well-written overview of Watergate beyond the Wikipedia articles. I have read The Novel by T. Mallon, which is mostly framed from the perspective of one of the bag-men doing the pay-offs. It's well-written and worth a look, maybe not what you're looking for, but an interesting view.

(In related fun audio, The Nixon Library has low-fidelity White House tape recordings available for our listening pleasure.)
posted by ovvl at 5:18 PM on February 27, 2018

Best answer: I recommend The Final Days, the sequal to ATPM, by Woodward and Bernstein.

The Final Days is a 1976 non-fiction book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal. A follow up to their book All the President's Men, The Final Days concerns itself with the final months of the Presidency of Richard Nixon including battles over the Nixon White House tapes and the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.

TFD is told as a straight historical narrative rather than the 'first person' focus on Woodstein's efforts in ATPM. TFD is very good. I also suggest Barry Sussman's own book, The Great Coverup: Nixon and the Scandal of Watergate. I have not read it all the way through since it basically duplicates Woodstein's efforts, as Sussman was their editor at WaPo, but it is an all in one book whereas you have to read ATPM+TFD. But if you've read ATPM already, get The Final Days.
posted by Fukiyama at 5:32 PM on February 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

This article mentions "The Wars of Watergate."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:37 AM on February 28, 2018

I want the answer to be Dick (1999), but it probably isn't.
posted by lousywiththespirit at 10:43 AM on March 1, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks everybody! Based on the responses I think I'll reread ATPM (as I remember it's a pretty fast read) and then tackle The Final Days, so I marked Fukiyama's answer as best.

Mr.Know-it-some: The NY Times review of The Wars of Watergate that you linked to is kind of neutral. The reviewer gives it middling marks for both eliding crucial details of what led to the break-in and for being "short on fresh insights and thoughtful analysis". Plus it's from 1990, so not much new scholarship. I think I'll skip it for now.

ovvl, thanks for the recommendation of Watergate: A Novel; I might pick that up once I'm done with the non-fiction. And likewise, lousywiththespirit, I saw Dick in the theater. It contains a fine performance by a young Michelle Williams, but I'm not sure its historical fidelity is at the same level of quality. Might be worth a rewatch though!
posted by fawaffle at 11:46 AM on March 3, 2018