Synopses & Reviews
Based on Nixons overlooked recordings, New York Times bestselling author John W. Dean connects the dots between what weve come to believe about Watergate and what actually happened
Watergate forever changed American politics, and in light of the revelations about the NSAs widespread surveillance program, the scandal has taken on new significance. Yet remarkably, four decades after Nixon was forced to resign, no one has told the full story of his involvement in Watergate.
In The Nixon Defense, former White House Counsel John W. Dean, one of the last major surviving figures of Watergate, draws on his own transcripts of almost a thousand conversations, a wealth of Nixons secretly recorded information, and more than 150,000 pages of documents in the National Archives and the Nixon Library to provide the definitive answer to the question: What did President
Nixon know and when did he know it?
Through narrative and contemporaneous dialogue, Dean connects dots that have never been connected, including revealing how and why the Watergate break-in occurred, what was on the mysterious 18 1/2 minute gap in Nixons recorded conversations, and more.
In what will stand as the most authoritative account of one of Americas worst political scandals, The Nixon Defense shows how the disastrous mistakes of Watergate could have been avoided and offers a cautionary tale for our own time.
Review
"A penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power ... riveting."
-Booklist, starred review
"A fierce indictment of Republican politicians ... the sheer outrage in Dean's book has power of its own."
-Chicago Tribune
Review
“Mr. Deans book will remind people of why Nixon deserves so unflattering a historical reputation . . . It should also serve as a renewed cautionary tale about elevating politicians with questionable character to high office . . . Deans resolve to reconstruct this dismal tale of high crimes and misdemeanors is commendable . . . . In addition to creating a definitive historical record of how the Watergate scandal unfolded,
The Nixon Defense resolves some major unsettled questions.” —
Robert Dallek, The New York Times “Dean, as always the model of precision and doggedness, has performed yeoman service . . . even for someone who has covered Watergate for 42 years, from the morning of the burglary through the investigations, confessions, denials, hearings, trials, books and attempts at historical revisionism, Deans book has an authoritative ring.” —Bob Woodward, The Washington Post
“A prodiguous effort.” —New York Daily News
“Dean shapes those conversations into a readable, dense narrative.” —Los Angeles Times
“The most intimate, detailed, complex and nuanced portrait of a President and his courtiers that we have ever seen in print . . . Dean is scrupulously fair, but Nixon is undone by his own words. To read them is to be a fly on the wall in the palace court of the Nixon White House, to observe history close up as we have never seen it before . . . the closest we will ever come to knowing the real Richard Nixon. It is a fascinating and very important piece of history, and the stuff of great drama.” —Huffington Post
Synopsis
On the heels of his national bestseller
Worse Than Watergate, John Dean takes a critical look at the current conservative movement
In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean places the conservative movements inner circle of leaders in the Republican Party under scrutiny. Dean finds their policies and mind-set to be fundamentally authoritarian, and as such, a danger to democracy. By examining the legacies of such old-line conservatives as J. Edgar Hoover, Spiro Agnew, and Phyllis Schlafly and of such current figures as Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and leaders of the Religious Right, Dean presents an alarming record of abuses of power. His trenchant analysis of how conservatism has lost its bearings serves as a chilling warning and a stirring inspiration to safeguard constitutional principles.
Synopsis
On the heels of his national bestseller Worse Than Watergate, John Dean takes a critical look at the current conservative movement In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean places the conservative movement's inner circle of leaders in the Republican Party under scrutiny. Dean finds their policies and mind- set to be fundamentally authoritarian, and as such, a danger to democracy. By examining the legacies of such old-line conservatives as J. Edgar Hoover, Spiro Agnew, and Phyllis Schlafly and of such current figures as Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and leaders of the Religious Right, Dean presents an alarming record of abuses of power. His trenchant analysis of how conservatism has lost its bearings serves as a chilling warning and a stirring inspiration to safeguard constitutional principles.
About the Author
John W. Dean was legal counsel to president Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony helped lead to Nixons resignation. In 2006, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bushs NSA warrantless wiretap program. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Blind Ambition, Broken Government, Conservatives Without Conscience, and Worse Than Watergate.
Table of Contents
Conservatives Without Conscience Preface
Chapter One: How Conservatives Think
Chapter Two: Conservatives Without Conscience
Chapter Three: Authoritarian Conservatism
Chapter Four: Troubling Politics and Policies of Our Authoritarian Government
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Notes
Index