This Watergate class is for one credit. Given the untimely death of Prof. Frank Tuerkheimer, who was going to teach the course, the format and nature of the course is being adjusted.

A fifteen-page paper will be due on November 9th. Paper topics should be cleared through Associate Dean Kelly.

The Watergate scandal remains the greatest scandal in U.S. History, covering the period from late 1971 until a verdict in the Watergate trial in January 1975. That period saw the only time in U.S. history that the threat of viable impeachment and removal caused a President to resign. This is all the more remarkable since the President was re-elected in 1972 carrying all but one state.

The Watergate story can be approached in many ways. This course, going through the Watergate story chronologically, inevitably focuses on how various institutions were tested -- the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Courts, the prosecution including the Grand Jury, and the press. Where appropriate, videos dealing with major events during this unique period in American history will be used.

Readings in the course are a little unusual. Instead of cases, two books constitute the core of the readings, to be supplemented by less than half a dozen cases. It is strongly recommended that those enrolling in the class make these two books their summer reading, virtually eliminating assigned readings during the class. The two books are:

John Dean's Blind Ambition; and
Woodward and Bernstein's The Final Days.