The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

James Rosen has written the defining biography of the Watergate era. This incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched book is worthy of a Pulitzer. Rosen's writing is eloquent, informative, and impossible to put down. His observations are spot on. Reading this reminds me very much of the late David Halberstam who was one of America's greatest authors. This book is a must have for any political junkie. Mitchell was a truly fascinating character who was without question one of the most brilliant political minds of the twentieth century. Anyone who could take Richard Nixon who had self imploded politically, and get him elected twice to the White House is worthy of serious study. Rosen has written a brilliant book about an fascinating character.

This is a very smart and incisive book. It is recommended as one of the best Watergate books yet written. NO... IT IS THE BEST. It is carefully and motivationally written. I cannot speak to all the facts of the book. No one could, but I can rely on James Rosen as a good faith journalist - his accounts of the Kent State shootings and other issues I do know about are accurate, aware and alive.

I was, for example, a student at Kent State during the ridiculous and tragic events of 1970 and during the late 1960s. My tenure as eye witness to history and as a student of politics and human behavior spanned the entire pregnant period from 1966 to 1973 when the Second, Failed or Red American Revolution came and went.

Rosen has a keen, circumspect and balanced understanding of the events that shows he is not biased in either his view of history or his world view. His approach is scientific and he is a slave to his facts not to his ideology - whatever it may be. In the instance of his views on the Second or Red Revolution in the USA, he established his bona fides with me. I have confidence that the rest of his reporting and thinking is similarly well founded. If a journalist follows his facts to the bloody end like James Rosen, he can only be celebrated.

I am still reading and evaluating the book, so I am going to keep adding to and revising this review as I go along. I will come back later and mop up and synthesize my thinking. I see no harm whatever in a provisional review. THE BOOK IS GREAT -- very eye opening.

More to follow.

This is a great read. It really is because it provides a much needed insight into one of the key figures of the Nixon era. Mitchell played a key role in the Nixon presidency, it can't be denied, but has been neglected by the existence of a sound biography. Rosen provides the needed insight into this figure. What one obtains from reading this book is that Mitchell was more complex than he appears in other works. For example, Mitchell stood against Nixon in some key junctions in constitutional history, as well as preventing Nixon from causing more problems. We also see how Mitchell deals with being sentenced to jail, and how he dealt with the aftermath. One also gains awareness into the fact that Dean lied, and that provided more reason to convict him with this false evidence

I was a student at the time of Watergate and this book will open your eyes. John Mitchell is shown to be a man you never really knew and if he were here with us today you would want to be associated with him.

While the book is very in depth, the problem with trying to organize the mass of information on the subject is that it didn't really have a linear story line. Or rather instead of the story line being thin, it was so broad that it seemed so much all over the place that it was difficult to keep place with where you were in the story. It's obviously not like a traditional book. For me, it was more like the facts were poured on the pages and it was up to the reader to figure out the story line. I wish that there had been more effort into the organization, even though the research was extremely thorough.