Bob Woodward: Bibliography & News Mini-Biography

Bob Woodward is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971. He is the author or coauthor of nine #1 bestsellers, including Bush at War, his account of America's response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan. The others are Shadow, The Agenda, The Commanders, Veil, Wired, The Brethren, The Final Days, and All the President's Men. His two other books, The Choice and Maestro, were also national bestsellers. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Plan of Attack
# Hardcover: 480 pages
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster; (April 19, 2004)
# ISBN: 074325547X

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of a turning point in history as President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launch a preemptive attack on Iraq, toppling Saddam Hussein and taking over the country. From in-depth interviews and documents, Bob Woodward provides an authoritative narrative of the Administration's behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years and examines the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.

Bush at War (#1 bestseller)
# Hardcover: 400 pages
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster; (November 19, 2002)
# ISBN: 0743204735

Bush at War focuses on the three months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during which the U.S. prepared for war in Afghanistan, took steps toward a preemptive strike against Iraq, intensified homeland defense, and began a well-funded CIA covert war against terrorism around the world. The narrative is classic Woodward: using his inside access to the major players, he offers a nearly day-by-day account of the decision-making processes and power battles behind the headlines. Woodward's information is based on tape-recorded interviews of over a hundred sources (some unnamed), including four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, along with notes from cabinet meetings and access to some classified reports.

Bob Woodward called his biography of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan Maestro for two reasons. First, Greenspan is a musician. He started out as a Julliard-trained jazz sax man. "He wasn't a good improviser," Woodward reports. And while the other guys got stoned all night, Greenspan "read economics and business books and eventually became the band's bookkeeper." He also cultivated powerful pals, like Ayn Rand, whose coterie dubbed the dour young man "The Undertaker."

More profoundly, Greenspan is a maestro, a conductor, exquisitely attuned to every instrument in the political and economic orchestra. He rules by consensus, but with a firm hand and notoriously inscrutable words. Marvelously, Woodward relates that Greenspan had to propose twice to his wife, the violinist-turned-TV news star Andrea Mitchell, before she understood: "His verbal obscurity and caution were so ingrained that Mitchell didn't even know that he had asked her to marry him." Woodward gives us the inside story of what Greenspan really thinks and how he outmaneuvered the most ruthless politicians on earth in some of the hairiest times imaginable, from the 1987 stock market crash to the 1994-95 Mexican crisis to the stomach-churning turn of the century. It turns out that for all his awesome knowledge of monetary minutiae, the Fed chief literally relies on "a pain in the pit of my stomach" to make decisions. "At times, he found his body sensed danger before his head," writes Woodward. The Fed chief also adapts Einstein's technique to economics, hunting for discrepancies as keys to deeper theories. Einstein made breakthroughs out of bent light; Greenspan deduced productivity gains that government statisticians had overlooked for years. (The gains appeared when Greenspan made the statisticians calculate productivity by business sector, the way it's done in the real world.)

There are two ways to look at this bestseller by Watergate scoopmeister Woodward. First, it's an original take on Clinton's sex scandal, framing it as the latest consequence of Nixon's assault on the U.S. political system. Woodward sketches each president's tussles with scandal managing after Watergate permanently turned up the press heat on the White House. Ford lies about a meeting concerning a potential deal to pardon Nixon, but remains convinced he did nothing wrong. Carter's pious advocacy of truth telling backfires when he's confronted with conundrums involving his pal Bert Lance, the fallout from CIA-provided hookers, and cash for King Hussein. Reagan's men try to make him understand the lies and shocking wrongness of the Iran-Contra debacle, but he simply, stubbornly doesn't get it. And by the time prosecutors interview Reagan in 1992, he's so ill he can't remember his own oldest friends and advisers.

The Choice
# Hardcover: 462 pages
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster; (June 1996)
# ASIN: 0684813084

In The Choice he has produced a look at the two candidates for the 1996 presidential race, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, published before the two parties' political conventions. The book details the political maneuvers endemic to the current climate: strategies, sessions, spins and ads aimed at repositioning and re-focusing either of the candidates in the light most favorable to the latest poll. It is the private not the public faces of our politicians that engage Woodward's skeptical gaze.

A no-holds-barred look inside the Clinton White House during the first one hundred days of his presidency. What emerges is a portrait of a man hampered by his struggle to do the right thing. Despite the defeat of the health care initiative and the bungling first steps of a naive administration, Woodward uncovers the essential decency of the man from Hope.

The Man Who Would Be President: Dan Quayle
David Broder & Bob Woodward
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster; (May 1992)
# ASIN: 0671791834
Overshadowed by jokes and negative press, the real Dan Quayle finally emerges in this reprint of a January 1992 seven-part Washington Post series of articles by Broder, the dean of political columnists, and investigative reporter Woodward, author of The Commanders

The Commanders (#1 bestseller)
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster; (June 1991)
# ASIN: 0671413678

Wars make great fiction and even better fact... It is impossible to examine any part of the war on terrorism in the twenty-first century without seeing the hand of Dick Cheney, Colin Powell or one of their loyalists. The Commanders, an account of the use of the military in the first Bush administration, is in many respects their story -- the intimate account of the tensions, disagreements and debates on the road to war.

The Final Days (#1 bestseller)
# Publisher: Random House Value Pub; (December 12, 1988)
# ASIN: 0517246597

"Final Days" is divided into two parts. First is a general overview of the first two years of the Watergate Crisis, this time told from the view of all the President's men rather than from the Washington Post. Next is a dizzying chapter-a-day sequence of the final 17 days of the Nixon administration.

Woodward's books on Watergate, the Supreme Court, and John Belushi were not so controversial as Veil. His deathbed visit to William Casey, former CIA head, has been disputed by Casey's wife. What Woodward knew about Casey's Iran-contra role was apparently withheld from Congress. All this smoke has drawn attention from the fire.

The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (#1 bestseller)
Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong
# Hardcover: 467 pages
# Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Juv); (December 1979)
# ASIN: 0671241109

Although "The Brethren" was written a quarter of a century ago and it covers the Supreme Court sessions from 1969 to 1975, there are two reasons to hunt down a used copy of this book and read it today. The first is its examination of the important Court decisions of Warren Burger's early years, all of which still reverberate with their controversy and implications. The second is to learn how, in spite of its famously left-of-center decisions, the Court began taking a sharp turn to the ideological right, spurred by the appointment of Burger and by the ascent of the young William Rehnquist.

All the President's Men (#1 bestseller)
# Paperback: 352 pages
# Publisher: Touchstone Books; Simon & Schuster (1974)
# ISBN: ?

Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks and dark secrets coming -- delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the President. This is their book that changed America.

aas's editor's note: Woodward was relatively quiescent during the impeachment wars. Some critics believe that the reason was that Woodward (and Carl Bernstein) were trying to preserve their Watergate triumph.

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June 24, 1999 - Brent Bozell on Woodward's new book, "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate":

Bob Woodward, Sacred Cow
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A defining article from the impeachment wars:

January 27, 2000 - Bob Woodward: "No Evidence that Clinton Committed a Crime" by Steve Schultze/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The difference between Watergate -- the office bugging and cover-up and related scandals of Nixon -- and Clinton's situation, was huge, according to Woodward. Under Nixon, "it was very clear there were crimes going on, on a massive scale, on a regular basis," Woodward said. Nixon resigned when it became apparent the House would impeach him.

By contrast, Clinton's problems were much less serious, Woodward said.

"The reality is, there is no evidence that Clinton committed a crime," Woodward said. The key witnesses all told investigators that Clinton never ordered a cover-up, told them to lie to investigators or promised Lewinsky a job to buy her silence, Woodward said.
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November 23, 1999 - Woodward needs to buy a clue from Vanna:

Bob Woodward: 'I don't think [the public] should be ... as angry [at the press] as they are'
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June 12, 1999 - Reed Irvine on Woodward:

Can Bob Woodward be trusted? ("Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate")
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April 2004 - Woodward on 60 Minutes (Plan of Attack):

Woodward on 60 Minutes blog by Evan
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April 19, 2004 - Lisa Pease, Webcom.com, gives us her take on Bob Woodward (FR thread):

Bob Woodward

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Free Republic article archive on Bob Woodward:

FR Woodward archive

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