The Wars of Watergate. Author: Stanley I. Kutler.

The Wars of Watergate is an examination of a president and an event that profoundly, lastingly eroded public trust in both the Executive branch specifically and the US Government in general. It was the culmination of a decade of challenge to traditional authorities, as well as the undeniable proof that suspicion of those authorities was warranted. While Watergate stands alone as a worthy subject of study, a most readers during the Trump presidential era who choose to learn about this period are doing so with attention to their own era. Watergate provides comparative background information on the process of investigating or dissolving a purportedly corrupt presidency.

Stanley Kutler organized his book as a historically evidential, rather than a politically partisan, assessment of an affair. He begins with the formative information of Nixon’s life and career from his childhood, to his first years in the Senate, through his bids for the presidency and his first term. Only then does he recount the crisis itself. The historical continuity does not end there; this writer provides extensive post-Watergate analysis of its impact up to the end of the 20^th Century.

There is a meticulousness to this study which readers will find alternately gratifying and frustrating. Frustrating, for example, is Kutler’s depiction of the House Judiciary Committee. He evaluates not only each of the congressional members (which is useful), but even some of Majority Special Counsel John Doar’s staff, who are nothing more than office functionaries. While trudging through such compulsive sections, one should keep in mind that a historian must consider more than simply informing their audience. More important, especially for one writing about fairly recent event, is to create as complete a historical record as possible. Who knows what bits of information will aid future historians in their research? However, Kutler’s thoroughness pays-off for a reader when he presents White House interactions among Nixon and his staff. He has carefully perused the White House Transcripts, offering extensive excerpts.  Here, the inner workings of an administration steeped in constitutional violations and cover-up is a fascinating glimpse into a once hidden history.

There is little chance that non-fiction bibliophiles, reading The Wars of Watergate while living through the crises of Trump’s administration, could ignore the important similarities between Trump and Nixon. Both lied with frequency and ease. Both attacked the news media for exposing their indiscretions. But more significantly, both failed The Two Part History Test: To paraphrase Mark Shields, Lesson One of Washington scandals is that the cover-up, not the initial crime, causes presidents the most legal trouble. Lesson Two is that they always forget Lesson One. For Nixon, the break-ins at DNC headquarters and Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office were crimes; but neither was as great a violation of the Constitution as the Obstruction of Justice charge with which he was eventually hounded out of office. For Trump, the picture may be slightly different. If it is true that he personally colluded with an enemy foreign power attempting to undermine our democratic elective process, that’s more serious than a simple break-in. However, it is unlikely that US citizens will ever have the truth there. What we do have is a bold, repeated, unapologetic admission that the President fired an FBI Director who would not stop an investigation against him. In an interview with Lester Holt, Trump claimed that “he had been planning to fire Comey even before he received Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's recommendation to do so.”^^ In a May 2017 meeting with Russian officials, Trump stated "I just fired the head of the FBI...I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."^^^ Both Trump’s and Nixon’s inability to absorb Lessons One and Two caused them to commit Obstruction of Justice. Our best hope, for maintaining the integrity of our Constitution, is that Trump’s presidency follows the same course as Nixon’s. But that is far from certain. During our troubled period, Kutler’s careful examination can be a useful, calm source of information regarding the anatomy of administrations that break the law and how justice is subsequently pursued.

Kutler, Stanley I. The Wars of Watergate. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990.

^^  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-reveals-he-asked-comey-whether-he-was-under-investigation-n757821

^^^  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/trump-russia-comey.html

Strapless. John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X. Author: Deborah Davis.

Strapless is a story about John Singer Sargent’s famous portrait of socialite, Amelie Gautreau. While it provides biographical background on these two figures, its main focus is on the years these two US expatriates lived in Paris and collaborated on a work intended to increase the cachet of both individuals. The “Madame X” portrait, which currently hangs in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, became the subject of scandal when exhibited at the 1884 Paris Salon. While there was wide criticism of the sitter’s position, her gown and Sargent’s technique, the foremost complaint revolved around the sexual suggestiveness of the model’s fallen right shoulder strap.

Davis begins with Gautreau’s family (the Avegnos) in the New Orleans area. Like most slave-owners of the time, they had an estate in the city and a plantation on the Louisiana agricultural lands. While the family owned over 100 slaves, there is only one reference to them: “tending to the animals and the crops were 147 slaves, watched by an overseer” (Davis, p.13). It is shocking that a book published in 2004, (one that details shopping in Paris over four pages), dedicates only one sentence the lives of those who were owned and mistreated by the Avegnos. Information about these particular slaves would not have been difficult to exhume from the historic record. Family correspondence, records of punishments or escapes, oral history of former slaves, archaeological excavations of slave quarters on family property, artifacts (like whips, torture devices, manacles), all of these methods were available to the historian. But Davis, in a pattern typical throughout the book, avoids topics of human rights, politics or suffering. The majority of the book concerns Belle Epoch Paris between 1870 and 1900. Remaining consistent with her evasion of the slavery issue, this author is able to talk about Parisian history without mentioning the primary culture clash between traditionalist nationalists and cosmopolitan modernists; an issue that divided French society among all classes, including that of her subjects. She mentions Alfred Dreyfus as a patient of the doctor who introduced Sargent and Gautreau, but ignores the Dreyfus Affair that was so central to that culture clash. She spends three pages on the presence and musical significance of Richard Wagner in society, without any reference to his influential anti-semitism. To indicate that Ms. Davis is not very political is like saying ISIS is a tad impertinent.

Of course, this is a story about Parisian High Society’s horror regarding a painting transgression of proper mores. While the author may exhibit deficits of conscience, anyone picking-up this book and expecting to read riveting social commentary is not paying attention. It is a book one reads as a break from worldly concerns; much like the reasons why someone would take time-out in an art museum to admire Sargent portraits in the first place. This does not excuse lapses in historical content or social conscience, but it does explain it.

While Davis exhibits little political awareness, she does show a touching affection for Sargent and Gautreau, as well as a concern for the trajectory of their lives before and after the scandal of 1884. She tells a good story. One empathizes with the rise of these two outsiders and their dramatic fall; then watches them intrepidly dust themselves off and struggle to revive their reputations. It’s a real life personal drama with all the importance of a fallen strap.

Davis, Deborah. Strapless. John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2004.