Bringing Down a President: The Watergate Scandal

This informative and lively book is the best overview of Watergate I’ve ever read.  Not only do you get the day-to-day drama as the scandal widens and deepens, you also see the personal characteristics of the affair’s major players, from John Dean’s “hippie” hair (it almost touched his collar!) to Richard Nixon’s affinity for cottage-cheese-and-pineapple lunches.  Replete with quotes from original sources, Bringing Down a President has plenty of the catch phrases and bon mots that Watergate made famous:

 

“The smoking gun”
“What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
“I’m just an old country lawyer.”
“Expletive deleted”
“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
“Our long national nightmare is over.”

 

Though this book is intended for younger readers, be aware that some of the direct quotes include the kind of salty language that many of the main Watergate players – especially President Nixon – used in private conversations.