An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate

by Jeb Stuart Magruder

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689106033
• ISBN13: 9780689106033
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.

Customer Reviews

My Favorite Book From the 1970s

"An American Life" was my favorite book from the 1970s (and I finally get to review it decades later). The proof of this is that I remember whole passages almost verbatim over a period of some thirty years (see "quotes" below). The origins of Magruder's involvement in Watergate are clearly laid out in Chapter 1, "Starting Out." His parents were wealthy heirs, until the Great Depression wiped out their families financially, and "my mother felt that life was harder for her than it should have been." As a result, the parents pushed Jeb and his brother to achieve the success that they had missed. "F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories of poor men who wanted to be rich struck very close to the reality of my own life." What happened next followed logically. After leaving school, Magruder became a dedicated, if job hopping, careerist. He made several deft corporate "political" moves but quit his job (in Chicago) when he felt that the next step up the ladder was blocked by someone about his age. The result was that he ended up in California, where he met Nixon's people. A meeting with H.R. "Bob" Haldeman led him to the White House where "finally, I had a job I loved, one that could be a springboard to unlimited success." As a result, he was willing to do just about anything, including playing "dirty tricks" such as inundating a radio station with complaints about a speaker critical of Nixon "staged" from various points in the country. After taking part in Watergate and being incarcerated, Magruder realized the error of his ways, and sought redemption by putting his life on a firmer footing. "It can be a good life, for me and my family."

I read this book with great interest. . .

I enjoyed this book, as I typically enjoy political memoirs. I'm glad that Rev. Magruder has found a measure of peace. My suggestion is to read this work along with the memoirs of others involved in Watergate. The shift in perspective was (for me) informative.

Speaking His Own Truth

After having worked for Rev. Magruder in the mid to late '80's, I know the man personally and know that he wrote this book with nothing but fact and truth in mind. For anyone else reading this book, An American Life will be interpreted individually, but Jeb is truly one of the Watergate Eight that paid dearly, both professionally and personally, for his actions in the Watergate scandal. This is a book worth reading that will help today's youth understand how power, profession and politics from the '70's were used by both parties for gain in Washington.

Must walk In His Shoes Before Casting Stones

I had'nt thought much about "Watergate" for many years,but found Magruder's book in a used book Dept. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I think it shows, if nothing else how easy one can be blinded by ambition, and become embroiled in a bad situation by trying to please ones superiors. My hat is off to Magrudeer, he was very candid and made no excuses for his behavior except to look back in disgust at his actions. If one lives long enough, and has normal inter-action with human nature, one will have at least one experience in which the old indian saying becomes reality "never judge until you've walked a mile in his moccasins"