THE FINAL DAYS is the classic, behind-the-scenes account of Richard Nixon's dramatic last months as president. Moment by moment, Bernstein and Woodward portray the taut, post-Watergate White House as Nixon, his family, his staff, and many members of Congress strained desperately to prevent his inevitable resignation. This brilliant book reveals the ordeal of Nixon's fall from office -- one of the gravest crises in American presidential history. Both devastating character study and essential insight into the workings of a corrupted White House, THE FINAL DAYS is an essential companion volume to the authors' classic ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.



About the authors


Robert Woodward, born March 26, 1943, in Geneva, Illinois, was raised in nearby Wheaton. The son of a Republican lawyer and judge, Woodward attended Yale University on an ROTC scholarship, graduating with a BA in History and English in 1965. He then served as a communications officer in the US Navy from 1965 to 1970. After leaving the service, he contemplated attending law school, but then decided to seek reporting jobs with The Washington Post or The New York Times. Turned down for a lack of experience, he spent a year as a reporter for the Montgomery County Sentinel in Maryland before getting a position at The Washington Post in 1971. At the time of the Watergate break-in, Woodward had been at the Post less than nine months and had worked as a reporter for less than two years.


Carl Bernstein was born February 14, 1944, in Washington, DC, and raised in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland. His parents were social activists and members of the American Communist Party. He began working as a copy boy at The Washington Evening Star at age sixteen, and after finishing high school attended classes part-time at the University of Maryland. He eventually began contributing stories at the Star and in 1965 moved to New York City to work as a reporter at the Elizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey. After one year at the Journal, Bernstein returned to Washington, DC, and took a reporter position at The Washington Post.


At first the two reporters worked independent of one another. Woodward discovered that one of the burglars, James McCord, Jr., was a former CIA employee, recently employed as a security coordinator for the Committee for the Re-election of President Nixon (CRP). He also tracked a phone number in one of the burglar's address book to White House consultant Howard Hunt. Bernstein was able to confirm the burglar's calls to Hunt through telephone records, and also traced a check in one of the burglars' bank accounts to the CRP. With support and guidance from Post editors Barry Sussman, Harry Rosenfeld, Howard Simons, and executive editor Ben Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein combined their efforts to further explain the break-in, seeking information from hundreds of administration officials, campaign workers, White House staffers, and other sources.