King Richard

Nixon and Watergate - an American tragedy

Michael Dobbs

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Paperback

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English

Scribe Publications
01 June 2021

History; History of the Americas; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Social & cultural history; Political leaders & leadership

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- 1973-Nixon has just won a second term as president in a landslide victory- in just over a year he will resign the Presidency in disgrace. Dobbs presents the Watergate story as if it were a classic Greek tragedy, how a once incredibly popular president should fall so drastically from grace. Nixon is presented as a complex, intelligent and insecure man-a person at constant war not only with himself but with what he considers his greatest enemy, the press. Using thousands of hours of newly released tapes this book takes the reader into the heart of the Watergate crisis leaving the reader not only feeling somewhat sympathetic towards the main players and their inevitable downfall but also disgust at the misuse and corruptible nature that is power. Greg Waldron

From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account - told from inside the White House - of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president.

In January 1973, Richard Nixon was inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasised into what White House counsel John Dean called 'a full-blown cancer'. King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration turned on one another, revealing their direct connection to the White House.

Drawing on thousands of hours of newly released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, recreating these dramatic events in unprecedentedly vivid detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players, and their desperate attempts to deflect blame, as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the centre of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, a man whose strengths - particularly his determination to win at all costs - were also his fatal flaws. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, this is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.

'The unraveling of Richard Nixon's presidency plays out in intimate detail in this vivid recreation of a key period in the Watergate scandal ... An indelible study of a political antihero.' STARRED REVIEW -Publishers Weekly 'Michael Dobbs is a master at narrative history. By focusing on the most critical 100 days of Watergate, and by sticking closely to the written and spoken record, Dobbs is able to bring to life the tragedy of Richard Nixon in a way no one else has. A truly gripping read and a moving portrait.' -Evan Thomas, author of Being Nixon 'Spellbinding ... Masterful ... The author delivers an intimate, engrossing picture of Nixon as a visionary man 'obsessed with privacy and solitude,' an affectionate husband and father, and a gut-fighting outsider mystified by power and all its trappings, styling himself as a kind of blend of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Disraeli, and Charles de Gaulle. A riveting portrait of ambition, hubris, betrayal, and the downfall of an American president.' STARRED REVIEW -Kirkus Reviews

By: Michael Dobbs
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 291mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 504g
ISBN: 9781922310781
ISBN 10: 1922310786
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 01 June 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Michael Dobbs was born and educated in Britain, but is now a US citizen. He was a long-time reporter for The Washington Post, covering the collapse of communism as a foreign correspondent, and he has taught at Princeton, Georgetown, and the University of Michigan. The author of a Cold War trilogy that includes Down with Big Brother, One Minute to Midnight, and Six Months in 1945, he lives outside Washington, DC.