--- description: The Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward helped take down President Nixon. His new book looks at the Trump White House. title: Bob Woodward's New Book 'Fear' Takes on Trump. Here's What to Know About His History of White House Reporting image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1bdf496b2d3a567/698939e7e76ad2e00d632f46/bob-woodward.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Bob Woodward's New Book _Fear_ Takes on Trump. Here's What to Know About His History of White House Reporting by [Rachel E. Greenspan](/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 11, 2018 4:46 PM CUT  A close-up of reporter Bob Woodward on May 7, 1973. A close-up of reporter Bob Woodward on May 7, 1973.AP—REX/Shutterstock by [Rachel E. Greenspan](/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 11, 2018 4:46 PM CUT What’s going on inside the White House has always been a subject of great fascination to Americans, but the Trump Administration has raised that interest to an unusual level. The situation, which former [President Obama recently said](http://time.com/5390568/obama-full-speech-transcript/ "undefined") “sure isn’t normal,” has recently been highlighted by the publication of [an anonymous New York _Times_ op-ed](http://time.com/5389795/donald-trump-new-york-times-op-ed-virtually-treason/ "undefined"), wherein a “a senior official in the Trump administration” [paints a picture](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html "undefined") of a secret coordinated effort to thwart the president, and by the buzzy publication on Tuesday of Bob Woodward’s new book [_Fear: Trump in the White House_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501175513/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1501175513&linkId=ae3ae7765702690bee615d0c9dcf8bfd "undefined"). The book — an account of chaos and mayhem within the Trump administration — has already made [headlines](http://time.com/5386877/donald-trump-bob-woodward-book-frauds/ "undefined"). Woodward, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, knows a little something about reporting on a peculiar White House. Now an associate editor at the Washington _Post_, Woodward is still best known for the fact that beginning in 1972 he and fellow journalist [Carl Bernstein](http://time.com/4760743/white-house-correspondents-dinner-woodward-bernstein-speech-2017/ "undefined") published a series of articles revealing salient details about the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s role therein. Coming only one year into [Woodward’s tenure](http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bob-woodward/ "undefined") at the _Post,_ Woodward’s reporting on Watergate was marked by its use of anonymous or [“deep background” sources](https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/telling-the-story/anonymous-sources "undefined") such as “[Deep Throat](http://time.com/2880136/deep-throat-watergate-washington-arlington-carpark-garage/ "undefined").” The same style of reporting is used in _Fear_. Woodward and Bernstein’s work on the Watergate scandal [has been called](https://catalog.simonandschuster.com/TitleDetails/TitleDetails.aspx?popup=1&cid=15145&isbn=9781476770512&FilterByName=Category&FilterBy=21&FilterVal=Language+Arts+%26+Disciplines&ob=0&pn=1&ed=&showcart=N&camefrom=&find=&a= "undefined") “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time” by Gene Roberts, a former managing editor of The New York _Times._ TIME named [_All the President’s Men_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476770514/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1476770514&linkId=0333819d51040cbda4fc94653ce7e0fd "undefined")_,_ the book by Woodward and Bernstein that resulted from their investigation, [one of its best 100 nonfiction books of all time](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/slide/all-the-presidents-men-by-bob-woodward-and-carl-bernstein/ "undefined") in 2011\. Here’s how TIME’s Alex Altman described its impact: --- > “” --- _All the President’s Men_, published in 1974 just before Nixon resigned from the presidency, was made into [a film in 1976](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HIYR2W/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B000HIYR2W&linkId=4b97836b98c7fc884432114934964005 "undefined"). The movie starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively. Woodward won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the _Post_ on the Watergate case [in 1973](http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1973 "undefined"), and a second for a [2002](http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2002 "undefined") New York _Times_ section on the 9/11 attacks. On Monday, in his first live interview to promote _Fear,_ Woodward said on NBC’s _Today_ that he sees President Trump is a threat to the country. “The things — some of the things — that Trump did and does jeopardizes the real national security,” he told host Savannah Guthrie. Woodward’s attention adds one more item to any list of [possible parallels](http://time.com/4784960/trump-nixon-what-next/ "undefined") between the Nixon presidency and the Trump presidency — but it has also added a source of difference. Though _Fear_ was released on Tuesday, it has already been dismissed by President Trump. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1038027233519001600) Meanwhile, when Woodward and Bernstein were awarded the Pulitzer in 1973, [TIME reported](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907195,00.html?iid=sr-link1 "undefined") that the White House had a very different response to the duo’s then-ongoing reporting on Watergate scandal. “Last week they reported that as early as last December aides had warned President Nixon of a White House cover-up of the Watergate case,” the TIME article says. “The Administration had no comment on the story — and no denunciation of the _Post_.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5389397/bob-woodward-fear-book/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5389397/bob-woodward-fear-book/"},"headline":"Bob Woodward's New Book Fear Takes on Trump. 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