"In this book, which originated as a series of articles for 'The New Yorker', Jonathan Schell has written a reflective account of our nation's political life between the time President Richard Nixon took office, in January 1969, and the time he left office, in August 1974. The author has examined what seemed to be, as they occurred, a chaotic succession of random events, of arbitrary, contradictory, aberrant Presidential acts, and found a logical coherence that we thought were not there--an explanation for much that was unexplained and appeared inexplicable." --Jacket.