It’s hard to imagine a more disturbing portrait of a president than the one Bob Woodward painted of Richard Nixon in his final days: paranoid, poisoned by power, pounding the carpet and talking to the portraits on the walls. But the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as recounted by Woodward in his new book, “Fear,” are strikingly similar and in some ways even more gut-wrenching. Then, as now, the country faced a crisis of leadership caused by a president’s fatal flaws and inability to function in the job.

In both “Fear” and “The Final Days,” which he co-authored with Carl Bernstein, Woodward shows how a federal criminal investigation clouds and then comes to obsess a president and paralyze the operations of the White House. At a moment when feverish talk of presidential impeachment dominates the political discourse, “Fear” is full of Nixonian echoes, including Trump’s childishly short attention span and refusal to read briefing papers. Nixon’s aides were instructed not to give him anything more complicated than a Reader’s Digest article.

“Fear” is an important book, not only because it raises serious questions about the president’s basic fitness for the office but also because of who the author is. Woodward’s dogged investigative reporting led to Nixon’s resignation. He has written or co-authored 18 books, 12 of them No. 1 bestsellers; broken other major stories as a reporter and associate editor of The Washington Post; and won two Pulitzer Prizes.

"Fear” supports this bracing assessment in a chronological trajectory, from the arrival of Bannon to lead the campaign in 2016 to the resignation, in March, of John Dowd, the lawyer representing the president in Robert S. Mueller’s probe. Over and over again, there are vivid scenes that show feckless decision-making by Trump and then mad scurrying by his aides to undo the damage.

Author background:

Bob Woodward is an American journalist who reported the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. Mr. Woodward was born in Illinois on March 26, 1943. Woodward was working as a reporter for paper when he was tipped to a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. With fellow journalist Carl Bernstein. Woodward and Bernstein soon became synonymous with investigative journalism, receiving wide acclaim for their journalistic work. (Woodward 1)

Why the book is banned:

            Fear: Trump in the White House, is challenged due to its stance on our current president. People today, get offended by the slightest things and due to this book “overstepping,” it is currently being challenged. The book is detailed reports from Mr. Woodward’s interviews with parts of Trumps Administration. Readers will be exposed to the truth told by members of Trump’s staff, even if it is not what they would like to hear. (Conrad 1)

Why the book should be read:

            This book should be read because it gives an inside look to people’s opinion and views of our president. This book is not for the closed-minded person. If you are leaning left or right on the political spectrum, and you cannot take others opinion, you are not mentally capable of reading and understanding this book. You need to grow up and learn that the world is not about you. (Woodward 32)

How the book differs from the movie:

            There is currently no movie adaptation for this book, due to its release in September of 2018. More than likely, there will not be a movie adaptation due to its controversial views and its lack of plot. Most modern movies are not based only on interviews. (Woodward 56)