The Palace Guard

by Dan Rather, Gary Paul Gates

Front cover is taped at spine edge and spine has creasing. Both covers have soil smugging and edge wear. Age discoloring names on inside front two pages. No other marks. Ships very quickly and packaged carefully!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Journalism, Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

With a famed and storied career that has spanned more than six decades, Dan Rather has earned his place as one of the world’s best-known journalists. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and, over that time, personally covered almost every important dateline in the United States and around the world. Rather joined CBS News in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks, and in 1981 he assumed the position of Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News—a post he held for twenty-four years. His reporting across the network helped turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award winning Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. Now, building upon that foundation, he is president and CEO of News and Guts, an independent production company he founded that specializes in high-quality nonfiction content across a range of traditional and digital distribution channels.

Reviews

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Machiavelli wrote "The first impression that one gets of a ruler and of his brains is from seeing the men that he has about him."

Dan Rather the eminent CBS news correspondent was the only American TV star who directly confronted Richard Nixon face to face, during his presidency, with a national audience of tens of millions and did a good job. The bones of this really great read is not what happened during Watergate but why it happened. An exemplerary lesson to all public figures that the truth has an inherently unpleasant habit of eventually getting out

[Mom Coulongue · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, I am even more suspicious of the political games in Washington and other sites where this ilk hang out...
I truly believe the games continue with even more intrigue, pushing by the powerful and money matters run amuck.
That said, it was interesting, concise and very well written.

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to read, if you (like me!) were born 10 years after Watergate broke. It's not (I don't think) that I'm unusually poorly versed in American history, but the book presupposes a certain familiarity with the major players that I just lacked. To that end, I think it felt more like *work* to me than it would have if I were reading this in, say, 1975.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Palace Guard is not about Watergate so much as it’s about the rise to power of the people behind the scandal.

This is an amazing account of the rise of Nixon’s White House staff: Mitchell, Haldeman, and Erlichman. It’s also interesting seeing clear media bias, from one of the media’s then-leading lights, over thirty years after he wrote it, and eight years after his own self-made demise.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually, this book was so ungrammtical that I didn't get half through it.

[Ron Fitzwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two thumbs up!

[Jarred Goodall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book out of my parents' garage, and enjoyed it. I have always respected the work of Dan Rather, whether it written or spoken. The title of the book proves fitting, as he covered all the key players, and their roles, in the Nixon White House. Nixon's choices of people, and their philosophies, ended up playing a key role in his downfall, for which, ironically, he almost got away with.

[Shirt Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy focus on Haldeman and Ehrlichman. This book was published right before Nixon's resignation, so only mentions of impeachment were assumed to be Nixon's fate. Many assumptions are made about character.
"Ends of Power" is a supplementary read for this.