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King Richard: Nixon and Watergate — an American Tragedy

King Richard: Nixon and Watergate — an American Tragedy

by Michael Dobbs

Knopf ·2021 ·416 pages
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About This Book

From the author of the acclaimed One Minute to Midnight: a sharply focused, riveting account--told from inside the White House--of the crucial months when the Watergate conspiracy consumed itself and brought down the president. In November 1972, Richard Nixon won reelection in a historic landslide. By April 1973, his fate was sealed as the Watergate scandal took on a life of its own. King Richard is the fascinating, utterly absorbing account of these crucial five months--when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration began to panic and turn on one another, ultimately revealing their direct connection to the White House. Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, re-creating these dramatic events as experienced by everyone from the burglars, to White House counsel John Dean, to Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman. Dobbs vividly captures the conspirators' growing paranoia and their desperate attempts to deflect blame as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the center of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, fresh off his massive reelection victory, struggling with his personal insecurities and the shambles in Vietnam as his presidency falls apart around him. This is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.


Reviews

"an indelible study of a political antihero."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Whatever [the reader's] conclusion, it will be better informed after reading this engrossing book."

Harvey Freedenberg· BookPage Read review ↗ Near the Top

"But fun or not, this is an important book at this moment in our tortured political history ..."

David Holahan· USA Today Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"This is a compelling, moment-by-moment narrative, psychological as much as political, offering a sense of intimacy with the beleaguered Nixon without mawkishness."

Mark Knoblauch· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"King Richard makes vivid use of the tapes to convey a White House that seemed to be an unholy combination of the grimly determined and aggressively puerile ..."

Jennifer Szalai· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"he uses novelistic techniques that make his story vivid and fun ..."

David Greenberg· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"a spellbinding account of the 100 days following Richard Nixon's second inaugural ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Dobbs uses this vivid source, among others, to re-enact the struggles within the Nixon operation just as it started to unravel."

Ron Elving· NPR Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The story Dobbs tells is, by turns, hilarious, pathetic and infuriating."

Joe Klein· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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