"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 Amazon.com.

Introduction -- Prologue: The Pentagon papers -- Part I: The kindling, 1971. All the President's men ; "Ellsberg? I've never heard of him" ; The Chennault affair ; The Huston plan ; Burglarizing Brookings ; The plumbers ; The enemies list ; Sandwedge -- Part II: The match, 1972. The Committee to Re-Elect ; The Dita Beard memo ; "He's our Hitler" ; Third-rate burglars ; "A crime that could destroy us all" ; "Boys will be boys" ; "Stay the hell out of this" ; "Keep my mouth shut" ; The arrival of Mr. Rivers ; The Dahlberg check ; The Patman probe ; "A hell of a story" ; "I can't talk about Segretti" ; Landslide -- Part III: Brushfire, January-June 1973. "Something was rotten" ; Guilty pleas ; The "country lawyer" enters ; "Twist slowly, slowly in the wind" ; "Perjury occurred" ; "What meat do they eat" ; "Voice of doom" ; The end of Mark Felt ; "A no-win job" ; "A Russian novel" -- Part IV: Firestorm, July-December 1973. "We need you today ; Butterfield's bombshell ; Must-see TV ; Spiro ; "An upheaval in Washington" ; Mud-wrestling ; "He is essentially alone" ; "The mahogany coffin" ; The massacre ; "We have no functional President" ; The patriotic monkey ; "I am not a crook" ; The Rose Mary stretch ; "Do I fight?" -- Part V: Inferno, 1974. Flutter and wow ; Le grand fromage ; "Don't miss page 503" ; The United States v. Richard M. Nixon ; Impeachment ; The smoking pistol ; The final days ; "A day for tears" ; "I shall resign" -- Epilogue: Nixon's curse.