All the President's Men cover

All the President's Men

Rating 4.4
Word count
231K words
Chapters
21
ISBN
9787532780983

Tags

Summary

Woodward had been at The Washington Post for just nine months. Saturday, June 17, 1972. Woodward got a call from the local news editor: in the early hours of that morning, five men carrying photographic equipment and electronic bugging devices had been arrested in a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. The Saturday newsroom was eerily quiet, and as Woodward began making calls, he noticed that Bernstein was also working on the burglary story. Oh, God, not him. Woodward remembered some newsroom talk that Bernstein had a real knack for grabbing stories. ... At 9 p.m. on April 30, 1973, Nixon addressed the nation on television. "The President of the United States," the announcer intoned solemnly. Nixon sat at his desk, a family photograph on one side, a bust of Lincoln on the other. The President began: "... Today I have made the most difficult decision of my presidency. I have accepted the resignations of two of my closest colleagues. ... In any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility. That responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office. I accept it. ... It is a system that brought the facts to light ... in this case, a system that included a steadfast grand jury, honest prosecutors, courageous judges, and a vigorous free press ..." ... On August 8, 1974, Nixon addressed the nation on television and announced his resignation as President.

Editor's review

As a classic record of the Watergate investigative reporting, All the President's Men long ago outgrew its value as a news text. Co-written by Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, this work of reportage reconstructs the investigation in calm, restrained prose and shows the decisive force of journalistic professionalism in holding power to account. Its detailed accounts of tracing leads, building sources, and verifying evidence remain a textbook model of investigative reporting to this day.

As reading, the book is not only a political thriller in documentary form but a methodological work on the pursuit of truth. The professionalism and resilience the two reporters showed under immense pressure from the White House carry profound lessons for today's media practitioners. The mechanisms of power and systemic corruption the book exposes also offer a distinctive perspective on understanding political ecosystems.

Yang Hengda's translation conveys the narrative rhythm of the original and the restrained tone characteristic of investigative reporting, preserving both the objectivity of the news text and the tension that keeps readers engaged. The Shanghai Translation Publishing House edition adds appropriate notes and background material, helping Chinese readers understand the American political context.

The book's enduring appeal lies in how it transcends the specific events to become a symbolic text of press freedom and democratic oversight. Rereading it in an age of information overload prompts us to reconsider the value of in-depth investigation and the importance of fact-checking.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers interested in investigative and political journalism
  • Students and practitioners of journalism and communication
  • Readers who want to know the historical details of Watergate
  • Readers concerned with mechanisms of oversight and checks on power

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting novelistic, dramatized storytelling
  • Complete beginners with no familiarity with American politics

Reading tips

  1. Read alongside related documentaries or films to understand how different media tell the story
  2. Pay attention to the investigative methods used and consider their applicability today
  3. Keep the historical context in mind and avoid simply applying another country's experience

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 致谢
  3. 人物表
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 后记

FAQ

How does this book differ from the film All the President's Men?
The book is the two reporters' firsthand account, documenting the investigation in detail and including much material and background analysis not shown in the film, with greater professional depth.
Can I understand it without background knowledge of American politics?
The translation provides the necessary background notes, and the core narrative follows the investigation; a basic understanding of Watergate is enough to follow the main content.
What is the book's relevance today?
In an era of fake news and eroding trust, the book demonstrates the importance of rigorous investigation and fact-checking and serves as a model for safeguarding the credibility of the press.

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About the author

Yang Hengda Author · Chinese · 1948–2023

Yang Hengda (1948–2023), a Shanghai native, was a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, as well as a translator and scholar. Fluent in English, German and French, he devoted himself to the study of Western literary history and Nietzsche's thought. He led the translation of the 26-volume Complete Works of Nietzsche, and translated Georg Lukács's Theory of the Novel, René Wellek's A History of Modern Criticism, and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, among other works. His own books include Nietzsche's Aesthetic Thought and a biography of Kafka. His works represented in the library span documentary writing, foreign literature and world classics: All the President's Men reflects his command of documentary subjects, while the multiple editions connected with Lady Chatterley's Lover show his sustained engagement with translating foreign literature. Public information is limited, but the available body of work shows that he combined scholarly research with literary translation, working with a rigorous hand and offering Chinese readers reliable access to Western literature and thought.

Carl Bernstein is an American journalist and nonfiction writer known for his investigative reporting. Public information about him is limited, and details such as his dates of birth and death and a complete career history are not currently available in this database. He is widely known for his role in investigating the Watergate scandal, a series of reports that became one of the most influential examples of investigative journalism in news history and established his standing in the field of nonfiction writing. The database includes his representative work All the President's Men, which focuses on the Watergate investigation and follows the process of interviewing, verifying facts, and tracing leads, revealing the tension between the exercise of power and press scrutiny. The work belongs to nonfiction literature, emphasizes factual evidence and detailed reconstruction, and is restrained in language while attentive to a sense of scene. It has had a lasting influence on later investigative reporting and political nonfiction.

Bob Woodward is an American investigative journalist and author of nonfiction, whose name is often associated in Chinese publishing with in-depth political reporting. Publicly available information is currently limited, and his complete life story and educational background cannot yet be confirmed, but his representative work All the President's Men is known to be classified as nonfiction literature. The book revolves around political power and news investigation, reflecting his writing approach centered on extensive first-hand interviews, document review, and detailed reconstruction, with a tight narrative pace and an emphasis on the completeness of the chain of facts. Woodward's works tend to focus on high-level decision-making and the mechanisms behind public events, offering reference value for understanding American political journalism. This library currently holds one of his works, through which readers can gain an initial understanding of his reporting style and subject orientation.

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