Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate

by Bob Woodward

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Twenty-five years ago, after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Gerald Ford promised a return to normalcy. "My fellow Americans, our long national... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684852624
• ISBN13: 9780684852621
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Hilarious Entertainment written by the best

This non-fiction book will give you a relief from biographies that feel like textbook. Shadw refers to the last five presidents of our nation: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George bush, and Bill Clinton. It talks about the scandals each had to face and how they coped with them. After Nixon resigned from office, Ford had to pull the ountry back from he Watergate scandal which was agreat challenge for him, and this book shows what lengths he went to. Woodward talks about how carter worked to end the Iran hostage crisis and how he would win the peoples' acceptance, Reagan's scandal with the Iran-contra cover-up and how he coped with that, George Bush's Gulf War, and the most famous scandal of all from the last decade: Clinton's scandal with Monica Lewinsky. But don't let that turn you away if you think you know everything. Woodward writes this nonfiction book as if it were fiction. It's entertaining and amusing to see what each president wen through, and it never feels like a straightforward textbook. Just remember that this is definitely not a history book; Woodward even says that this is an examination of the most important moments of the last five presidents.

Great Investigative Work

Another solid investigative work by Bob Woodward. Well researched and documented, and strongly written. Really shows how the acts of Richard Nixon nearly 30 years ago impacted the administrations of the next five Presidents. Great read for any political junkies.

A must for any student of history or politics

Woodward's "Shadow," was, indubitably, the best book I have read in several years. It examined, with incredible detail and authority, the sundry effects of Watergate on the American presidency. Since Nixon's resignation, Woodward shows, the American public has viewed every leader as thoroughly corrupt and intent only on serving their own self interests. With painstakingly accurate and unbiased facts, Woodward convinced me that most of the post-Watergate presidents were victims rather than villians. President Reagan, for example, likely had little if any awareness of the Iran-Contra operation at the time it was executed; President Clinton has been plagued incessantly by unvalidated insinuations and malicious investigators hoping to serendipitously stumble upon some wrongdoing, e.g. Whitewater, where none existed. Overall, Woodward seems to suggest that the expiration of the independent counsel statute was overwhelmingly positive and that, in the future, the public should cease its endless cynicism and regain its erstwhile sentiments of respect for our leaders. Regardless of your views of my interpretation, I believe "Shadow" is one the most informative, and simultaneously engrossing, reads you are likely to find.

A LIVELY POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Documents in detail "off-the-track" ethical and moral behavior and the "new world" of public observation of the Presidency.

The best close up summary of the impact of Watergate.

This is a brilliant book! The best among Woodward's many fine works on politics of and near the presidency in the last 25 years.Read this book from the first page onward. Do not simply jump to the "juicy parts" about Clinton as apparently all the inside the Beltway crowd does or you'll miss Woodward's development of his theme of how the presidency has changed. Woodward argues that Presidents have to be forthcoming in order to avoid public expectations of deviousness. At the same time, he is highly critical of thepetty nature of the offenses that have been raised to indictable or even impeachable offenses.As is widely known, no one gets inside the secret chambers of high office as does Bob Woodward. In this book we get good analysis to put in context the hitherto secret conversations within the White HouseThe one fault I would takke is that although Woodward criticizes media excesses in general, he does not name names. Someday I hope Woodward will put his enormous reportorial talent to work in focusing on the large, influential, and as yet untouched Washington journalists.