All the President's Men

GOP 'Dirty Tricks': A Riveting History

You wouldn't think this anatomy of a political scandal (which should be dry as dirt) could be so fascinating and relevant over forty years after it brought down a presidency, but so it is. I looked forward to every possible opportunity to listen, and even purchased the Kindle edition in order to finish the book faster. The narrator is excellent, although occasionally the listener can hear him sipping water in between sections or chapters. The book is long, but never boring, and I ended up wishing it had been just a little longer so that Nixon's resignation could have been the final chapter, rather than just his defiant "I am not a crook" speech and his final State of the Union, in which he vowed never to quit.

One caveat: See the excellent movie (with Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman as Woodward & Bernstein) before listening to or reading the book. The book is far more detailed, but when you see the film first, you'll have a good mental picture of the basic cast of characters that will help you keep them all straight while listening.

Grade: A+

17 of 18 people found this review helpful

THE FUMBLING OF AN ASSUAGED

At high school mid to late ‘70s I was really keen on reading mostly books on which movies were based. For example “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Marathon Man”, “Black Sunday”, “The Omen”, “Zorba the Greek”, “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and the book under review. And then I’d read only to make me understand these movies, all of which were in my 2nd language and spoken very hastily.

Then reading “All the President’s Men”, I didn’t have a clue whatsoever as to what it was all about. I was in my mid-teens, on the tip of Africa and knew absolutely nothing about the inner workings of US politics. Upon lending this book to a school friend I asked him what he thought of it (although I myself wasn’t capable of forming any such opinion): “Boring” he said, “like reading a newspaper.” I retorted: “But they ARE newspaper men!” To which he replied “Ok, small wonder; now it makes sense.” My friend obviously knew a little more about form than content.

Listening to this book now refreshed my memory; almost therapeutically allowing me to relive and reconstruct past events―like cheating on myself by only now allowing myself to understand more in retrospect than what had as a teenager been completely incomprehensible to me.

In conclusion allow me these seemingly insignificant acknowledgements. I'd often enhance my vocabulary by jotting down words the meanings of which I didn't know and consult a dictionary. Two of the abovementioned books in their very opening lines already contributed to my vocabulary. Harper Lee’s “Mocking Bird” taught me the word “assuage” and Messrs Woodward and Bernstein gave the word “fumble”. These contributions to what I regard as my intellectual development (political enrichment notwithstanding) I still cherish and am most grateful for even now as an adult, more than 35 years down the line. "The Child is the Father of the Man"—William Wordsworth.

20 of 27 people found this review helpful

Disturbing. But we knew that.

The narrator was brilliant. You could even hear a bit of Dick Nixon in his voicing of Nixon's words.

Listening to this in July of 2016, I can see the effects of Nixon's paranoia still deeply entrenched in the GOP to this day. And now the bleed over to the far left. "Blame the press" was the Nixon White House's primary line of defense. I am struck at how this correlates to the far left and the mid to far right.

If you can't win on facts, blame the messenger. Unfortunately, it is far more effective now than it was then

We need fewer amateur bloggers and more pros like Bob and Carl. Pros that are committed to getting it right. Pros that see "the competition" getting today's scoop as confirmation of yesterday's, and tomorrow's, stories.

This should be required reading/listening for every voter, every four years.

11 of 15 people found this review helpful

I had forgotten all that really happened...

I had forgotten how much nasty stuff really happened during Watergate and the truly great work that Woodward and Bernstein did. This is a great read and very well narrated by Richard Poe. Anyone interested in history and an amazing true story should refresh with this one.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Stepping stones to our world (of 24-7 publicity)

What jumped out for me here is the folkways of ordinary people, questioned by these reporters, blurting something out, emoting genuinely, in a time and cultural world before every casual act became presumptively on camera and precalculated in its future media effects. I feel for the people who spilled the beans to these reporters with a startling innocence, without looking around six or seven corners ahead. Many then found themselves suddenly and shockingly in the glaring klieg lights of the public gaze. They had some of the charm of pictures in past eras of natives who had never been in front of a camera before. There is something touching about them, I feel a compassion. But I cannot think like them. I lived in a world in some ways made by Watergate and modern media/technologies. It is often an ugly and glaring and slightly paranoiac world, a complexly manipulative world. Maybe this is the eternal lament of an old man.
There are many people in history, in my words, "whose world has, at least in some important aspect, become our world." For reasons seemingly not calculated by anyone, we are in some sense living in their world. The financialized traders of the Jewish stetls are one such group. The people in their times evolved their answers and methods, but something about it stayed and permeated us. The world of Watergate and its characters is another. Reality TV, the world of dishing up one's faults to the eye of the camera as a business model, the tabloid world, took on a special momentum in the Watergate days, and has now risen into the US presidency itself. The presidency and all its drama and characters large and small becoming the biggest TV show on earth was a step along this path. And its acolytes, knowing or not, were these talented fellows, Woodward and Bernstein. This is readily signified by this story itself becoming a glitzy Hollywood movie with them as characters. They became liberal rock stars, so to speak, sages, and have kept these mantles.
But something was lost, too. That something, increasingly alien to young people I come in contact with, was called privacy. It was called decency in a self-restraining way that mouthing the word "decency" now in this posed self-conscious world doesn't say it anymore. We all became a little harder and more calculating -- if we wanted to survive or get ahead. Such are the glories and regrets around every corner in poking through history. Many things lovely and sordid have come and gone. And will again.
As for the writing here, the book is crisp and listenable, the characters and times colorfully portrayed. Washington Post took its modern role alongside New York Times as villain in the eyes of the popular right. I read an anti-Trump editorial in the Post the other day, obviously trying its best to carry on the tradition created by "WoodStein," as these guys were called, but frankly, this one was drivel. What was pathbreaking can become formulaic, and we might forget how good the original in its time was. This book opens all this in my mind.
This book is a little bit paint-by-numbers and partisan for my taste, but it does walk the story through briskly.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Looking forward to Trump's last stand

This is a great book. I can't understand why I never read it before. I can't believe 45 years later we have another "Liar in Chief" that we must bring to justice. Here's hoping our constitutional republic survives again. Thank Thomas Jefferson for "We The People"!

7 of 12 people found this review helpful

Truly worthy of its acolades.

Would you listen to All the President's Men again? Why?

I have a deep interest in the life and times of Richard Nixon.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The narration appropriately recognised the gravity of the situations unfolding as the book progressed.

Which scene was your favorite?

probably the last ounerground meeting with deep throat.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

politics is a shabby game.

Any additional comments?

surprised that it took so long to arrive in the audible collection. the wait was worth it: a compelling account of an extremely interesting periond in american history and politics, and the narration was of a standard worthy of the quality of the book.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

A prequil to Woodward's Trump book.

All the Presidents men is even more interesting 40 years after i first read it. It helps me understand how we got to Trump.

I can't wait to hear Trump fall.

It is very wrong to even think about a leader of a nation fall from grace, but in the case of Trump, we are all justified in thinking this way. After listening to this book, I found that there are so many similarities between Trump, and Nixon. I trust in this investigative reporting, and I would strongly recommend you listen to the other investigative novels written by these authors. This wasa perfect example of how a newspaper shined in it's hay day.

Unfortunate History

Fascinating review of a former dark period in our country's history. Worth listening and applying to today's events.