An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate
by Jeb Stuart Magruder
Our Price: $7.50
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jeb Stuart MagruderEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1974
ISBN: 0689106033
Number of pages: 338
Publisher: Atheneum
Book Reviews of An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate
Book Review: My Favorite Book From the 1970s
Summary: 5 Stars
"An American Life" was my favorite book from the 1970s (and I finally get to review it decades later). The proof of this is that I remember whole passages almost verbatim over a period of some thirty years (see "quotes" below).
The origins of Magruder's involvement in Watergate are clearly laid out in Chapter 1, "Starting Out." His parents were wealthy heirs, until the Great Depression wiped out their families financially, and "my mother felt that life was harder for her than it should have been." As a result, the parents pushed Jeb and his brother to achieve the success that they had missed. "F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories of poor men who wanted to be rich struck very close to the reality of my own life."
What happened next followed logically. After leaving school, Magruder became a dedicated, if job hopping, careerist. He made several deft corporate "political" moves but quit his job (in Chicago) when he felt that the next step up the ladder was blocked by someone about his age. The result was that he ended up in California, where he met Nixon's people.
A meeting with H.R. "Bob" Haldeman led him to the White House where "finally, I had a job I loved, one that could be a springboard to unlimited success." As a result, he was willing to do just about anything, including playing "dirty tricks" such as inundating a radio station with complaints about a speaker critical of Nixon "staged" from various points in the country.
After taking part in Watergate and being incarcerated, Magruder realized the error of his ways, and sought redemption by putting his life on a firmer footing. "It can be a good life, for me and my family."
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Watergate Nostalgia Trip
DickRelease date: 1999-12-14; DVD
Best price: $3.56
Price in other shops:
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papersby Daniel Ellsberg
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bushby John W. Dean
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2005-04-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Women of Watergateby Madeleine Edmondson
Stein & Day Pub; Published: 1975-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
To Set the Record Straight: The Break-In, the Tapes, the Conspirators, the Pardonby John J. Sirica
W W Norton & Co Inc; Published: 1979-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.91
Price in other shops:
Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddyby G. Gordon Liddy
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 1991-07-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergateby Jeb Stuart Magruder
Atheneum; Published: 1974; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.99
Witness to Power: The Nixon Yearsby John Ehrlichman
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1982-02-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.05
Price in other shops:
President Nixon: Alone in the White Houseby Richard Reeves
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2002-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops:
RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixonby Richard Nixon
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1990-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixonby Stanley I. Kutler
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1992-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.31
Price in other shops:
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Powerby Robert Dallek
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.93
Price in other shops:
BEFORE THE FALL: An inside view of the pre-Watergate White Houseby William Safire
Doubleday; Published: 1975; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.75
In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewalby Richard Nixon
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1990-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.45
Price in other shops:
All the President's Menby Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
Pocket; Published: 2005-06-24; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.63
Price in other shops:
The Ends of Powerby H.R. Haldeman, Joseph Dimona
Dell Publishing; Published: 1978-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapesby Stanley Kutler
Touchstone; Published: 1998-09-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
The Final Daysby Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddyby G. Gordon Liddy
St. Martin's Press; Published: 1996-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $61.45
Blind Ambition: The White House Yearsby John Dean
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1976-11-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: