Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House, currently the #1 international bestseller, is the most detailed and penetrating portrait of a sitting president in the first year of an administration. Fear sold more than 1.1 million copies in its first week in the United States, breaking the 94-year first-week sales record of its publisher Simon & Schuster.
On February 28, 2019, Bob Woodward will provide an inside look into the Trump presidency at Bellco Theatre. His appearance is not to be missed.
Jill Abramson, the former editor of The New York Times, said in her review of Fear written for The Washington Post, “In an age of ‘alternative facts’ and corrosive tweets about ‘fake news,’ Woodward is truth’s gold standard…explosive…As a profile of Trump, the book is devastating…jaw-dropping.”
George Packer in The New Yorker wrote that Fear “is a remarkable feat of reporting…There’s nothing comparable in American journalism, except maybe Woodward’s ‘The Final Days,’ cowritten with Carl Bernstein about the downfall of Richard Nixon.”
Woodward has worked for The Washington Post for 47 years and shared in two Pulitzer Prizes– -the first with Bernstein for their Watergate coverage and the second as the lead reporter for the Post’s coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Bob Woodward has written 19 books. All have been national bestsellers–13 of them (now including Fear) have been #1 national nonfiction bestsellers. He has written articles and books about the last nine presidents from Nixon to Trump.
“No, Bob Woodward is not a Democratic operative,” said POLITICO Playbook. “He’s a highly respected journalist who has a track record of writing meticulously detailed books about presidents with an uncanny knack for getting behind-the-scenes details.”
“Woodward’s latest book shows the administration is broken, and yet what comes next could be even worse,” said David A. Graham in The Atlantic.
The extraordinary interest in Woodward’s Fear is fueled by people’s hunger to truly understand what is going on in Washington. As he travels the country, Bob Woodward says people’s questions fall into four categories:
1) The presidency: How is President Trump doing and surviving? How does Trump compare with the other eight presidents – Nixon to Obama – that Woodward has reported on for The Washington Post and in his bestselling books?
2) The investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller: Is it like Watergate or will it fade away like Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandal?
3) Conflict: What is the likelihood of a new war? What are the goals with North Korea, in the Middle East, with the Islamic state, and on terrorism? Will there likely be a major escalation in one of the current conflicts?
4) The economy: Is the American/global economy sound or are we headed for trouble? How is Trump’s America First agenda playing out with our allies and enemies around the globe?
In 2014, Robert Gates, former director of the CIA and secretary of defense, said of Woodward, “He has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts to him . . . his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn’t be talking about is just extraordinary and may be unique.” That is Woodward’s true gift and audiences who hear him speak leave transfixed by what they’ve learned.
Bob Woodward is a legend in journalism. Nick Bryant of the BBC said, “I wonder how many journalists have arrived in Washington over the years dreaming of becoming the next Bob Woodward…Though his books are often sensational, he is the opposite of sensationalist. He’s diligent, rigorous, fastidious about the facts, and studiously ethical. There’s something almost monastic about his method…He’s Washington’s chronicler-in-chief.”
