Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years

by J. Anthony Lukas, Joan Hoff (Contribution by)

Overview

In July 1973, for the first time in its history, the New York Times Magazine devoted a full issue to a single article: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J. Anthony Lukas's account of the Watergate story to date. Six months later, a second installment ran in another full issue. Later the Times asked him to write a third issue, on the impeachment, which never appeared because of Nixon's intervening resignation. But all of Lukas's painstaking reporting on Nixon's last months in office appears here, along with added information on every aspect of Watergate.

Widely acclaimed as a major text of the Watergate saga, J. Anthony Lukas's Nightmare is a masterwork of investigation, highlighted by in-depth character sketches of the key players. For students of history coming to these events for the first time, this book reveals in depth the particular trauma of a nation in turmoil; for those who remember, the upheaval and what was at stake are once more brought to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821412879
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	09/30/1999
Edition description:	1
Pages:	648
Sales rank:	891,611
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

J. Anthony Lukas won two Pulitzer Prizes for writing about social upheavals of the 1960s and '70s. He died in 1997.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Preface	xiii
1	Fear of Losing	1
2	State of Siege	9
3	Leaks and Taps	41
4	Plumbers	68
5	Dirty Money	109
6	Dirty Tricks	146
7	Break-in	169
8	Cover-up	210
9	Uncover	270
10	Houses in the Sun	343
11	Tapes	369
12	Agnew	397
13	Firestorm	415
14	Operation Condor	442
15	Impeachment	469
16	Resignation	515
	A Note on Sources	570
	Index	581

Editorial Reviews

"[A] model of measured judgment and of careful selection and synthesis ... it is presented with such masterly narrative skill that one reads the old familiar story as if it were all new and fresh."--Publishers Weekly

"Highly recommended for those with an insatiable fascination for the Watergate story. The author ... shuns grandiloquent probing for deeper meanings while providing an almost minute-by-minute account of a cast of hundreds, interspersed with concise biographical vignettes."--Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs

"That the facts about Watergate are now as straight as they are, in spite of all official attempts to conceal them, is a tribute to Lukas's skill as a reporter and more broadly to the journalistic tradition he represents."--Christopher Lasch, New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

Lukas's 1973 volume is a detailed chronicle of Nixon's last month in office. It was originally intended for the New York Times Magazine as part of a series on Nixon's probable impeachment, but his resignation killed the story. As dark a chapter in our history as it was and poisonous as it was to the U.S. citizenry's faith in the government, Watergate nonetheless continues to fascinate. This first trade paper edition contains a new foreword by Joan Hoff. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

<:st> Originally published in 1973 by Viking Penguin, and cited in This reprint makes available investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Lukas's influential account of Watergate and the story of Nixon's abuse of his presidential powers from the early days of his presidency through his resignation. Includes a foreword by historian Joan Hoff. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

That the facts about Watergate are now as straight as they are, in spite of all official attempts to conceal them, is a tribute to Lukas's skill as a reporter and more broadly to the journalistic tradition he represents.
—New York Times Book Review

Christopher Lasch