A review by thisfoxreads
Bringing Down a President: The Watergate Scandal by Elizabeth Levy, Andrea Balis
5.0
Yes, a rare 5 stars from me.
I'm impressed. The authors present the often confusing Watergate/impeachment/resignation scandal in an interesting read. Rather than a standard narrative, they use a "fly on the wall" (their term) narration interspersed between actual quotations of the players--the infamous "plumbers," journalists Woodward & Bernstein, Richard Nixon, senators and Congresspeople, and those closest to Nixon.
I was young, but I remember growing up in a family of Nixon supporters during the 1972 election. I well remember listening to Nixon's resignation speech as we sat in our car driving to our family vacation. All of the names were familiar to me as I grew up, but the sequence of events was never quite clear to me--even a history major in college & even taking a course on 1970s US history in grad school. This book provides that information at last. I read this one on my lunch breaks and it was difficult to put aside at the end of my 30 minutes each day.
My only complaint is that the pencil/ink drawings, while mostly quite well done, are the only illustrations in this book for young adults. How much more interesting it would be to see photographs of the actual people and artifacts described. I was constantly doing online searches while reading.
Warning: impolite language used (even by the "fly on the wall" narrator--unneeded, really), though often letters are replaced with punctuation. The words won't be a surprise to teen readers, but may discomfit parents. (Insert "expletive deleted" joke here--read the book to understand.)
Bottom line: all teens and adults should read this one if they've ever wondered just what a hotel break-in really had to do with bringing down the most powerful person in the US.
I'm impressed. The authors present the often confusing Watergate/impeachment/resignation scandal in an interesting read. Rather than a standard narrative, they use a "fly on the wall" (their term) narration interspersed between actual quotations of the players--the infamous "plumbers," journalists Woodward & Bernstein, Richard Nixon, senators and Congresspeople, and those closest to Nixon.
I was young, but I remember growing up in a family of Nixon supporters during the 1972 election. I well remember listening to Nixon's resignation speech as we sat in our car driving to our family vacation. All of the names were familiar to me as I grew up, but the sequence of events was never quite clear to me--even a history major in college & even taking a course on 1970s US history in grad school. This book provides that information at last. I read this one on my lunch breaks and it was difficult to put aside at the end of my 30 minutes each day.
My only complaint is that the pencil/ink drawings, while mostly quite well done, are the only illustrations in this book for young adults. How much more interesting it would be to see photographs of the actual people and artifacts described. I was constantly doing online searches while reading.
Warning: impolite language used (even by the "fly on the wall" narrator--unneeded, really), though often letters are replaced with punctuation. The words won't be a surprise to teen readers, but may discomfit parents. (Insert "expletive deleted" joke here--read the book to understand.)
Bottom line: all teens and adults should read this one if they've ever wondered just what a hotel break-in really had to do with bringing down the most powerful person in the US.