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A review by kathywadolowski
All the President's Men by Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
5.0
Essential reading for all Americans. This book is of course extremely well-written (not necessarily surprising given its journalist authors), though a little bit hard to follow at times given all the names. The cast of characters at the beginning was a life-saver.
But even when I was a little confused about what exactly each new lead and new source might mean, I still felt the deep unease that permeated the book and motivated the authors' quest for truth. We are supposed to be able to trust our representatives to do what's best for *us* and not for themselves, and when that ideal is abandoned by have a responsibility to find out and do something about it. So hats off and THANK YOU to Woodward and Bernstein, who determined from the start to get to truth of whatever was rotting in the Nixon administration. Only their doggedness revealed that the nation had been betrayed by its government all the way to the very top, and their example still stands today to illustrate the importance of holding leadership to account.
It's both disheartening and encouraging to know that the same troubling tactics have been at work in politics for so long: just as it's discouraging to see how people continue to pursue political life in bad faith and for personal gain, it's also comforting to know that America has survived similar storms. But one must know such history in order to avoid repeating it, and the danger presented in this book is no less present 50 years later. Both the foreword to my 50th anniversary edition and the afterword (40 years after) impress the idea that though the events of Watergate continue to recede farther into history, they are still as relevant and instructive as ever before. The parallels between Nixon and Trump are alarmingly numerous, from their self-importance and shamelessness, to their hunger for power, and to their preference for attack and offense (especially when it comes to the press). We must be just as vigilant today in calling out hypocrisy, undemocratic attacks on the press, and bald-faced lies if we're ever going to come through this era with our democratic system intact.
Though Woodward and Bernstein both admit to being a bit in awe of the President and the enormity of an attack on the office, we learn from them that such fear can never stand in the way of pursuing what we know is right (and pushing back on what we know to be wrong). No one's above the law, and no one is too big to fail—not even a president.
But even when I was a little confused about what exactly each new lead and new source might mean, I still felt the deep unease that permeated the book and motivated the authors' quest for truth. We are supposed to be able to trust our representatives to do what's best for *us* and not for themselves, and when that ideal is abandoned by have a responsibility to find out and do something about it. So hats off and THANK YOU to Woodward and Bernstein, who determined from the start to get to truth of whatever was rotting in the Nixon administration. Only their doggedness revealed that the nation had been betrayed by its government all the way to the very top, and their example still stands today to illustrate the importance of holding leadership to account.
It's both disheartening and encouraging to know that the same troubling tactics have been at work in politics for so long: just as it's discouraging to see how people continue to pursue political life in bad faith and for personal gain, it's also comforting to know that America has survived similar storms. But one must know such history in order to avoid repeating it, and the danger presented in this book is no less present 50 years later. Both the foreword to my 50th anniversary edition and the afterword (40 years after) impress the idea that though the events of Watergate continue to recede farther into history, they are still as relevant and instructive as ever before. The parallels between Nixon and Trump are alarmingly numerous, from their self-importance and shamelessness, to their hunger for power, and to their preference for attack and offense (especially when it comes to the press). We must be just as vigilant today in calling out hypocrisy, undemocratic attacks on the press, and bald-faced lies if we're ever going to come through this era with our democratic system intact.
Though Woodward and Bernstein both admit to being a bit in awe of the President and the enormity of an attack on the office, we learn from them that such fear can never stand in the way of pursuing what we know is right (and pushing back on what we know to be wrong). No one's above the law, and no one is too big to fail—not even a president.