Rating: 
Summary: Shadowy History
Review: It is reasonable that the public would expect a celebrated investigative journalist like Bob Woodward to be accurate in writing history. It has been said that journalists write the first draft of history.In several places in this book Bob Woodward mentions the former Deputy White House counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. The American press has consistently misreported or ignored the facts surrounding the historic death of Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster's death resulted in an FBI/Park Police investigation, two Senate Hearings, a congressional probe, two more FBI investigations under two Independent Counsels Robert Fiske and Kenneth Starr, and thousands of newspaper articles. Mr. Starr's Report on Foster's death is available from any government printing office and it is exactly 137 pages long. Bob Woodward mistakely wrote that Starr's Report was 114 pages long concealing existence and contents of the pages added by the Special Division of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The entire American press has always concealed the final pages of Starr's Report on Foster because those pages, submitted by a harassed grand jury witness, reveal the fraud that has been perpetrated on the public by the press. A better accounting of the facts can be found in Failure of the Public Trust also available from Amazon.com. Failure of the Public Trust is also a court document that was unsealed by the Special Division of the U.S. Court of appeals. I co-authored this document with attorney John Clake and grand jury witness Patrick Knowlton. Mr. Woodward's failure to report the historic cover-up of the apparent murder of a White House official casts a shadow over everything he has written.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Unfortunately, this book attempts to partially excuse the reprehensible pattern of deception, self-gratification and lack of respect and appreciation Bill Clinton has shown for the Office that he occupies. To place partial blame on previous occupants of the Office, as well as trying to lift his status by chopping down prevous Presidents is a repulsive tactic. Each individual should stand or fall on his own actions and merits. If you want someone to distort and manipulate your own commonsense evaluation of these events, this is the book for you!
Rating: 
Summary: Once an investigative reporter ["IR"], always an IR
Review: Bob Woodward has done it once again. When all All the Presidents Men was first published I bought the book and read it, just like many others. I reread it earlier this year and since then have read several others by Mr. Woodward. Shadow is his best to date. It is a "must read" for anyone even remotely interested in presidental politics and events that have made headlines over the last thirty years or so. All of us, if we would admit it, wished we were "flies on the wall" in the White House. Woodward gives us that opportunity. Buy this book. More importantly, read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate 1974-199
Review: I found the audiobook enlighting. Watergate was an earth shattering event. Politics in America has changed. The author illustrates how the presidents after Nixon, failed to recognize this change. The president is not god.
Rating: 
Summary: I have an antipathy for Woodward
Review: I don't like Bob Woodward, and so my opinion of his writing is not objective. Nevertheless, he is an excellent writer, and this book is highly readable. One cannot put it down. Yet, I don't trust his version of events, and that distrust ruins it all for me. The book was a gift. I would not have bought it, but I read it. His partisanship, though usually disguised, is always present, and his opportunism and obsessive ambition makes everything he says suspect. That said, if you can credit him, this is a good book. It is filled with details of the last five presidents, beginning with Gerald Ford and ending with Bill Clinton. Over half the book (593 pages, total) is about Clinton. Ronald Reagan gets a meager 79 pages. Jimmy Carter only 45. One of the problems with the book is Woodward's tendency to fictionalize. For example, on page 303: "'Who is Hillary Clinton?' the first lady read that morning, January 5, in the Wall Street Journal. She shuddered." Now, how in the world could Woodward know that Hillary Clinton shuddered? He was not there! Is that the kind of thing she would have told him in confidence? "I shuddered!" about reading a newspaper? But, the book reads well and, if you can believe it, covers a lot of history. Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but suspect
Review: There is no doubt that Bob Woodward, author of "All the President's Men" and famed Washington Post reporter, is a highly talented writer with terrific connections throughout Washington D.C. Those qualities make "Shadow" fascinating reading, particularly with respect to Woodward's take on the various scandals that have swirled around the Clinton Presidency (i.e., Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, and Monica Lewinsky). This is a compulsively readable work.
At the same time, there is an air of suspicion about Woodward's sourcing. Who did he talk to to get the quotes he got? For example, on page 360, he recounts a conversation among President Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, and Bob Bennett about an evidentiary ruling by Judge Wright in the Paula Jones matter. Bennett supposedly says, "The key thing is, don't go in and perjure yourself." Who is Woodward's source for this reporting? The endnotes state "Author's interviews with knowledgeable sources." Other than Clinton, Bennett, and Lindsey, who could be knowledgeable about the conversation? It is highly unlikely that Clinton was the source, and Lindsey and Bennett are both attorneys; for them to disclose the contents of the conversation would breach the attorney-client privilege and would constitute a great ethical lapse. Yet, the conversation has an authentic feel to it. It sounds right. But Woodward's questionable sourcing, which dates back to "The Final Days," rears its ugly head here. Throughout entire passages that sound like they really happened, the reader is left wondering, How does Woodward know this? In summary, I wouldn't pay full price for this book, but it is worth a few dollars if you can find it in a remaindered pile or a bargain section.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: After I finished reading this book I asked myself whatever happened to Bob Woodward, the journalist? He is now a "Washington Insider", and like all other Washington Insiders his raison d'etre is to protect and perpetuate his own power. Woodward is overly generous to his sources and unfair to people who did not leak to him. He repeats the same point over and over "if only they were more open and honest". He never questions his own assumptions and sees nothing wrong with the current Salem era witchunts. There is no soul searching on his part as so how he contributed to the current atmosphere with Woodward wannabes peeping through bedroom keyholes. There are no fresh insights in this book, just a few scoops about trivial matters to sell books. It is time for Bob Woodward to re-evalutate his career. A long hiatus away from Washington might do the trick.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is Bob Woodward patting himself on the back
Review: This book has some interesting anecdotes about the past 5 presidents and how the independent council has affected each president, but I found myself laughing at Bob Woodward and how much he critisizes each president while patting himself on the back for how Watergate has affected the presidency. Woodward is flat out wrong and sickening in his condemnation of these five presidents while repeatedly omitting the other side of the story -- letting the media off the hook while anointing himself chief justice of morality and decision making. If each of these past five presidents is such a weak, immoral man, so lacking in perfection and moral recititude as Woodward paints them out to be, not one being up to Woodward's standards, then how far back does it go? Woodward would probably be glad to critisize Lincoln's faults. I just hope someday we hold the media up to these bogus standards -- let's take a hard look at Bob Woodward and everythig he has done in his past, and decide if he is good enough to write any more books. Just a warning if you want to buy this book, and I hope Woodward gets more compassion and humanity next time he sets out to destroy people's life work.
Rating:
Summary: Good History, Good Theory, Bad Attitude
Review: Bob Woodward presents his theory that all of our presidents since Nixon have been forced to govern under the shadow of Watergate. Interesting theory, and Woodward does a good job of illustrating and proving his point. He also suggests that the independent counsel is unconstitutional and threatening to our government's structure. If these concepts excite the political theorist in you, buy the book. Historically, there is a rich store of behind-the-scenes information on our presidents from Ford to Clinton. Personally, I was left wishing for beefier sections on Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush (especially given the length of the work). The preponderance of the text deals with the Clinton Administration and Whitewater/Paula Jones/Monica. The book provides a good in depth history of that if you want the goods on Monicagate. Finally, if you want to read Bob Woodward slamming on our former and current presidents, this is also a good read for you. Personally, I was put off by the anti-president attitude, which I think proves that Watergate cast a shadow over more than the political system in Washington (Woodward for example..). Overall, though, I recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I thought that this book was an excellent look at each president and how the sting of Watergate affected each president regardless if they were Democrat or Republican.
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