Watergate Bibliography

By Patrick Mondout

Our bibliography of Watergate resources is divided up as follows: General Watergate books, books on the Nixon Presidency, books on Nixon, memoirs by Watergate figures, Watergate-related videos, and Watergate references. In case you are wondering, this is not some random list; I do in fact have everything on this list including the very hard to find Stephen Ambrose volumes and can recommend them all (I have far more on Watergate but cannot recommend them for one reason or another).

Your research into Watergate really ought to start with one of the most well known books of the 20th Century - the book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors that pursued the story from the "third-rate burglary" to the resignation. (Note that All The President's Men was published before Nixon's resignation and The Final Days was published to both cash in on the success of the first book and to complete the story.)

Woodward, Bob and Bernstein, Carl. All The President's Men. Simon & Schuster, 1974.

(Junior high and high school students are advised to start with David K. Fremon's excellent The Watergate Scandal in American History.)

General Watergate:
There were dozens of books on Watergate published shortly after Nixon resigned. Even Dan Rather had one. Here are contemporary and more recent books we can recommend.

Emery, Fred. Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon. Crown, 1994.

Kutler, Stanley I. Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. W.W. Norton & Company, 1991.

Lukas, J. Anthony. Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years. Viking, 1976.

Olson, Keith W. Watergate: The Presidential Scandal That Shook America. University of Kansas, 2003.

White, Theodore. Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon. Scribner, 1975.

Woodward, Bob and Bernstein, Carl. The Final Days. Simon & Schuster, 1976.

Specialist Watergate
These are books that have merit but only cover a particular aspect of Watergate:

Ball, Howard. We Have a Duty: The Supreme Court and the Watergate Tapes Litigation. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990.

Cannon, James. Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History. HarperCollins, 1994.

Kutler, Stanley I. (editor). Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes. Touchstone Books, 1997.

Woodward, Bob. Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate 1974-1999. Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Nixon Presidency:
The University of Kansas Press have produced a number of wonderful volumes on various presidencies. Their volume on Nixon is the only book strictly on his presidency that I can recommend:

Small, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon. University of Kansas, 1999.

Nixon Biographies/Memoirs:
Ambrose may have tarnished his name with an unfortunate plagiarism scandal, but his biographies of both Eisenhower and Nixon are among the best. Unfortunately, the last two - particularly Triumph of a Politician are very hard to find and command top dollar.

Ambrose, Stephen. Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962. Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Ambrose, Stephen. Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972. Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Ambrose, Stephen. Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990. Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Hoff, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered. Basic Books, 1994.

Greenberg, David. Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image. W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Morris, Roger. Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician. Henry Holt, 1989.

Nixon, Richard. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. Grosset & Dunlap, 1978.

Who Was Deep Throat?
Many books devoted pages to the search for Woodward and Bernstein's source (particularly Dean's Lost Honor). Only a few were devoted to the search for Deep Throat:

Garment, Leonard. In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time. Basic Books, 2001.

Woodward, Bob. The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat. Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Personal Reflections:
A few of these are pretty self-serving and have been largely ignored by historians (Magruder's, Colson's and particularly Liddy's are so off-the-charts self-serving as to be unintentionally humorous and cannot be recommend). Yes, they all have an agenda, but at least Haldeman, Dean, and Kissinger actually have something to contribute.

Dean, John. Blind Ambition. Simon and Schuster, 1979.

Dean, John. Lost Honor. Stratford Press, 1982.

Ehrlichman, John D. Witness to Power: The Nixon Years. Simon & Schuster, 1982.

Haldeman, H.R. The Ends of Power. Times Books, 1978.

Haldeman, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. Putnum, 1994 (also available as a CDROM).

Kissinger, Henry A. & Luce, Clare Boothe. The White House Years. Little Brown & Company, 1979.

Kissinger, Henry A. Years of Upheaval. Little Brown & Company, 1982.

Sirica, John J. To Set the Record Straight: The Break-In, the Tapes, the Conspirators, the Pardon. W.W. Norton & Company, 1979.

Videos/DVDs:
There are no shortage of documentaries and even movies about Richard Nixon and Watergate, but some of them are in short supply. The excellent two part documentary on Nixon made for the American Experience series on PBS is now out of print. Most will recall the first Woodward/Bernstein book was made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, but did you know their follow-up was made into a 1989 made for TV movie? Those with a sense of humor should seek out the 1999 comedy Dick - especially if you grew up in the Super70s. It parodies much of All The President's Men. 

ABC News. Dark Days At The White House: The Watergate Scandal And The Resignation Of President Richard M. Nixon. 1990.

Discovery Communications. Watergate (3 part documentary). 1995.

Fleming, Andrew. Dick (motion picture). 1999.

Frost, David. The Nixon Interviews with David Frost. 1977.

Pakula, Alan. All The President's Men (motion picture). 1976.

Pearce, Richard. The Final Days (made-for-TV movie). 1989.

PBS. The American Experience: Nixon. 1998.

Stone, Oliver. Nixon (motion picture). 1995.

Watergate References:
These are essential reference works on Watergate:

Congressional Quarterly. Watergate: Chronology of a Crisis. CQ Press, 1973-1974.

Executive Session Hearings Before the Select Committee on Presidential campaign Activities of the United States Senate: Watergate and Related Activities (30 Volumes). GPO, 1974.

Knappman Edward W. (editor). Watergate and the White House Volumes 1-3. Facts on File, 1973-1974.