"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, the first definitive narrative history of Watergate, exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of our modern era." --
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard found tape on doors at the Watergate office complex, and called the police. The arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National committee offices unraveled a web of scandal that ultimately ended a presidency and forever altered views of moral authority and leadership. Graff explores the full scope of this unprecedented moment, from the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers through a conspiracy deeper and more corrupt than anyone thought possible, a conspiracy that threw the nation into a state of crisis and created one of the darkest chapters in American history. -- adapted from jacket.