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Summary
Summary
Since its opening in 1965, the Watergate complex has been one of Washington's chicest addresses, a home to power brokers from both political parties and the epicenter of a scandal that brought down a president. In The Watergate, writer and political consultant Joseph Rodota paints a vivid portrait of this landmark and the movers and shakers who have lived there.
Watergate residents--an intriguing casts of politicians, journalists, socialites and spies--have been at the center of America's political storms for half a century. The irrepressible Martha Mitchell, wife of President Nixon's attorney general and campaign manager John Mitchell, captivated the nation with a stream of outrageous interviews and phone calls from her Watergate duplex. Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia put aside their differences many a New Year's Eve to celebrate together at the Watergate, dining on wild game hunted by Scalia and cooked by Ginsburg's husband. Monica Lewinsky hunkered down in her mother's Watergate apartment while President Clinton fought impeachment; her neighbor U.S. Senator Bob Dole brought donuts to the hordes of reporters camped out front. Years after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted chamber music concerts in her Watergate living room, guests remembered the soaring music--and the cheap snacks.
Rodota unlocks the mysteries of the Watergate, including why Elizabeth Taylor refused to move into a Watergate apartment with her sixth husband; reveals a surprising connection between the Watergate and Ronald Reagan; and unravels how the Nixon break-in transformed the Watergate's reputation and spawned generations of "-gate" scandals, from Koreagate to Deflategate.
The Washington Post once called the Watergate a "glittering Potomac Titanic." Like the famous ocean liner, the Watergate was ahead of its time, filled with boldface names--and ultimately doomed. The Watergate is a captivating inside look at the passengers and crew of this legendary building.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Political consultant Rodota chronicles the history of the D.C. address known as the Watergate from its conception in 1960 in the offices of the Italian construction company SGI to its present place in the registry of historic landmarks. An integral part of the Watergate story is the 1972 break-in at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee, but Rodota doesn't overemphasize that incident; he happily careens from the break-in to lesser-known but significant Watergate-connected scandals, including a gay prostitution ring that did business at the Watergate Hotel, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair (relevant because of Monica Lewinsky's Watergate residence), and a host of other misdeeds and transgressions that either occurred at the Watergate or were perpetuated by Watergate residents. Rodota includes innumerable anecdotes about both ordinary and rich and powerful Watergate dwellers, among them cabinet members, senators, and political operatives. He also devotes energy to the Watergate's controversial architecture and the zoning battles that surrounded its planning and construction, as well as the high-wire financial challenges faced by the development's Watergate Hotel. This account mixes history, finance, and high-level political gossip to evoke the Watergate complex's mystique. Agency: Sterling Lord Literistic. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The story of the six-building complex of residences, offices, and hotel that has served as a Washington, D.C., power center from the time it opened in 1965.In June 1972, five men broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building, beginning a chain of events that led to Richard Nixon's resignation two years laterand made "Watergate" synonymous with scandal. Journalist and political aide Rodota makes his literary debut with an entertaining, gossip-filled history of the architecturally innovative structures along the Potomac River. Advertised to prospective residents as "the Garden City Within a City," the complex boasted a reflecting pool, luxurious baths (each with a bidet), views of the Potomac from private balconies, and state-of-the-art securitywhich, it turns out, did not prevent a spate of burglaries. It became a coveted address during the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, "second only to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Rodota writes, offering a fabulous French restaurant, opulent pastry shop, beauty salon, and four psychiatrists. The author profiles the personalities and interior design choices of many famous, and sometimes notorious, Watergate residents: politicians, lawyers, doctors, diplomats, and businessmen. Two women stand out: Martha Mitchell, the volatile, outspoken, hard-drinking wife of Nixon's attorney general and campaign manager, John Mitchell; and socialite Anna Chennault, a wealthy widow described by her biographer as "extremely aggressive socially, and ambitious, and she wanted to be the queen, she wanted to be on the top of the social heap, and she worked it." Other notables include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, newspaper editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, Sally Quinn; Condoleezza Rice; and Monica Lewinsky, who apologized to her neighbors for "intrusions" during the Starr investigation. Like the residences, the hotel attracted stars: Pearl Bailey, who cooked a roast for Henry Fonda in her suite's kitchen; Shelley Winters, who breakfasted in the hotel dining room wearing a bathrobe and slippers; and Katharine Hepburn, who demanded that her room's heaters be disconnected so her room would be cool enough.A richly detailed history of a site awarded landmark status. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
There are few places more notorious in American lore than the Watergate, the site of a game-changing political scandal some four decades ago now referenced regularly in the news. A campus of ocean-liner-like behemoths with lodging, residential, and commercial spaces, the Watergate complex almost didn't get built. This and other fun facts and esoteric anecdotes elevate Rodota's meticulous history of the fabled Washington establishment into an unlikely combination of campy political gossip and erudite architectural exploration. Those who called the Watergate home comprise an eclectic who's who that spanned decades, from Nixon cohorts John Mitchell and Rose Mary Woods to Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky and Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But its fame and infamy derive from its most renowned commercial client, the Democratic National Committee. Along with the ongoing political shenanigans occurring in and around the Watergate, parallel story lines trace the building's labyrinthine financial provenance all the way to the Vatican. Sure to appeal to architecture and political junkies alike, Rodota's history provides a thorough and thoroughly engrossing insider account of this legendary Washington address.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Watergate is ingrained in our cultural memory as the 1974 scandal that brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon. Rodota, an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and California governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, offers an engaging history of the Watergate complex in Washington, DC-celebrity residents, the hotel, and upscale restaurant-which the Washington Post called, "the Potomac Titanic with no icebergs or steerage class." Included is a lively account of the disagreements between developers of Watergate, which opened in 1965, and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the District's Zoning Commission, as they tried to agree on a design that would enhance the surroundings' natural beauty without overwhelming the neighboring John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Stories of many residents, including controversial would-be diplomat Anna Chennault, architect Luigi Moretti, chef Jean-Louis Palladin, and White House intern Monica Lewinsky make for a brisk narrative, as Rodota vividly recounts this place to be for political royalty during the Nixon and Reagan years, despite repeated incidents of inside burglaries, water damage, and faulty appliances. VERDICT A fascinating account, part history, part society page, which will appeal to a wide audience of general readers and those intrigued by architectural history.-Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
