About the Author

Elizabeth Drew is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and the former Washington correspondent of The New Yorker and The Atlantic. She is the author of fourteen books, includingThe Corruption of American Politics, also available from The Overlook Press.

Reviews

A true Washington thriller . . . When it comes to understanding the consequences of Nixon's reckless White House on America's political institutions, Drew's account is simply indispensable . . . Relevant both to Watergate-era D.C. and to the undoubtedly more noxious, and indisputably cruder, politics of Trump's capital.--Susan B. Glasser
An amazing book that more than stands the test of time.--Jon Meacham, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
[Drew's depiction of DC in 1973] bears an uncanny resemblance to the city we've come to know since President Donald Trump took office.
It does something no other Watergate book does: tells the story not as a tidy tale with a clear beginning and inevitable end, but as an experience thick with confusion, rumors, alarm, and half-truths . . . Helpful for trying to understand what it is like to live through a period of great confusion and potentially great import.--Ezra Klein
A journal so meticulous, so coolly absorbing as to render the year almost reasonable.--Joan Didion
A true thriller.
Full of observations and sensory details that give the word 'Watergate' meaning beyond the well-worn symbols of corruption and malaise. . . From the first page, you feel that you are in smoggy, stuffy Washington, watching things get bizarre.
Superb . . . [Drew] has succeeded admirably in coolly, clinically, meticulously recording the way it was. Her work is bound to be indispensable.
A classic of American political journalism . . . Forty years later, it's every bit as riveting.--Judy Woodruff
Elizabeth Drew made me feel again the strong emotions of those extraordinary months in 1974 when Richard Nixon was unmasked--the doubt, the tension, the relief. It was a time in our lives when the Constitution came alive, and she makes us understand how it happened. It is wonderful to be reminded.--Anthony Lewis
Like nothing else I've ever read about that period, really shows what it was like to be there.--Molly Ball
A sober, thorough, and sensitive report.
Compelling . . . a reminder that American politicians can rise and respond to crises.--Al Hunt
Of all the books on Watergate, this is the one that will last.--John W. Gardner
One of the pioneers of women in journalism.--Chuck Todd
Unquestionably the best book yet on Watergate, and conceivably the best we will ever get.--Greil Marcus