Bob Woodward: The Man Who Makes Politics

I was in a used bookstore a number of years ago with my grandpa when I found a copy of The War Within: A Secret White House History (2006–2008). At the time, I was just getting into politics and, although I knew many of the big names and events, I had yet to study in detail what actually happened in previous administrations. I noticed the book was written by a man named Bob Woodward, whom I assumed — based on the subtitle of his book and nothing else (it’s very common to find garbage books that promise to be the “secret history” of events)— was nothing more than a tabloid journalist. However, I asked my grandfather and he told me that “he’s the guy who broke Watergate.”

I read The War Within almost immediately after buying it — and I was blown away by how Woodward managed to craft a narrative around such a long and complicated event, all while making the reader feel like they’re with him watching these events unfold. I could honestly say that you could enter The War Within without knowing a single thing about the Bush White House and still fully understand it — something that cannot be said for many non-fiction books.

Since then, I have read Woodward’s other three books on Bush — Bush At War, Plan Of Attack, and State Of Denial — as well as much of his work in general. Peril is the only book I have ever pre-ordered and one of only a handful of…