In 31 Days, Barry Werth takes readers inside the White House during the

tumultuous days following Nixon’s resignation and the swearing-in of America’s “accidental president,” Gerald Ford. The congressional hearings, Nixon’s increasing paranoia, and, finally, the devastating revelations of the White House tapes had torn the country apart. Within the White House and the Republican Party, Nixon’s resignation produced new fissures and battle lines — and new opportunities for political advancement.

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Ford had to reassure the nation and the world that he would attend to the

pressing issues of the day, from resolving the legal questions surrounding

Nixon’s role in Watergate, to dealing with the wind down of the Vietnam War, the precarious state of détente with the Soviet Union, and the ongoing attempts to stabilize the Middle East. Within hours of Nixon’s departure from Washington, Ford began the all-important task of forming an inner circle of trusted advisers. In richly detailed scenes, Werth describes the often vicious sparring among two mutually distrustful staffs — Nixon’s and Ford’s vice presidential holdovers — and a transition team that included Donald Rumsfeld and 33-year-old Richard Cheney.

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The first detailed account of the ruthless maneuvering and day-to-day politicking behind everything from the pardon of Nixon to why George H. W. Bush was passed over for the vice presidency, to the rise of a new cadre of Republican movers and shakers, 31 Days offers a compelling perspective on a fascinating but relatively unexamined period in American history and its impact on the present.

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Praise for 31 Days:

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“A gripping narrative account of Ford’s first weeks in office…a period in which some of the key players in the Bush administration rose to power and established their mastery of intra-administration battles, a period that serves as a bookend to our own.”

–The New York Times

 

“Werth brings a refreshingly personal tone and a sharp biographer’s eye to the chronology of the Ford transition. His day to day real-time narration effectively conjures up the prevailing atmosphere — new promise mixed with the lingering baleful influence of Dark Lord Nixon — that made the Ford interregnum a unique moment of extreme contingency in the annals of the American Presidency.”

–The New York Observer

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“A runaway train of a read: I kept turning the pages as if I hadn’t already lived through the event.”

–Liz Smith

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“Never has the Ford administration seemed so gripping.”

–The Atlantic Monthly

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“A riveting minute-by-minute account of 31 days that affected our nation, with

relevance to everything that has happened since.”

–Richard Holbrooke

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“A crackling account of the tumultuous time when Gerald Ford moved into the

Oval Office following the resignation of President Nixon. The power struggles,

legal maneuvers, personality conflicts, and big stakes all add up to a whodunit on a grand scale. I was there—and I was thrilled to take the trip again.”

–Tom Brokaw