Bob Woodward, full name Robert Upshur Woodward, is an American journalist and novelist who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post in 1973 for his investigative reporting on the Watergate controversy with Carl Bernstein.

Woodward was raised in Wheaton, a Chicago suburb where his father was a successful lawyer. When he attended Yale University on a navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, it was assumed that he would walk in his father’s footsteps into the legal profession. Woodward commenced a five-year tour of service as a communications officer after completing a bachelor’s degree in history and English literature in 1965. When he returned, he was accepted to Harvard Law School in 1970.

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He did not, however, seek a legal degree. Instead, he asked The Washington Post’s editors for an unpaid two-week internship. While none of the items he submitted were published, the editors recognised his promise and directed him to the Montgomery County Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in suburban Maryland. Within a year, Woodward’s talents had improved to the point that the Post was prepared to give him another shot.

Woodward had been following the police beat for nine months when he received word of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. Working with colleague Post reporter Bernstein, Woodward eventually linked the break-in to the top echelons of US President Richard Nixon‘s government. The Post received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for public service for its reporting by Woodward and Bernstein.

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Woodward and Bernstein’s names became almost ubiquitous with investigative journalism, and their book, All the President’s Men (1974), was a best-seller. The 1976 film adaptation of the book, with Robert Redford as Woodward, was also a sensation.

Woodward remained with the Post and was promoted to assistant managing editor in 1979. However, in the years that followed, he became more well-known for his books than for his daily reporting. Exposés on people as diverse as comedian John Belushi and former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle earned both praise and criticism, with critics appreciating his ability to find masses of material while criticising his proclivity to dwell on the heinous. His latter work, on the other hand, focused on hard news and the power and politics of Washington.

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Woodward led a team that won another Pulitzer for the Post in 2002 for its coverage of the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. That year, he published the first of a series of books that provided an inside view at President George W. Bush‘s administration. Plan of Attack (2004) explored the years leading up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, while Bush at War (2002) profiled the characters who drove the American military reaction in Afghanistan.

State of Denial (2006), a change from the largely positive tone of the previous two publications, gave a harsh analysis of the administration’s blunders and ignored counsel that continued to damage its combat efforts. His fourth book in the series, The War Within (2008), was critical of the president.

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Woodward then turned his attention to President Barack Obama administration. In Obama’s Wars (2010), he addressed White House conflicts over Afghanistan War policy, and in The Price of Politics (2012), he focused on the administration’s and Congress’s disagreements over fiscal problems. Woodward gave a very critical depiction of Donald Trump’s presidency in Fear: Trump in the White House (2018) and Rage (2020); the latter volume contained a series of conversations with Trump. Peril (2021; co-written with Robert Costa) is about Trump’s efforts to stay in office despite having lost the 2020 election.