Bob Woodward's recent book Last of the President's Men is a work that reexamines already heavily trodden ground. Woodward is synonymous with the Nixon administration and Watergate, and his book is reminiscent of a 1960s or 1970s rock star going back on tour and playing all his greatest hits. Woodward offers no earth-shatteringly new information about the Nixon administration but does give readers a more detailed look at the inner workings of Richard Nixon's White House through the eyes of Deputy Chief of Staff Alexander Butterfield.
Woodward explains in his prologue that Butterfield approached him in 2014 and 2015 with a trove of unpublished original memoranda, letters, and personal papers from the Nixon White House that he acquired as deputy chief of staff. Over the next year Woodward began interviewing Butterfield to learn more about his relationship with President Richard Nixon. The resulting book is a glimpse into a sometimes...