But as No. 1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the centre of the turmoil, resulting in over 6,000 pages of transcripts- and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside...

"The United States started late in the day in establishing its consular service. It was a very amateurish organization, often staffed by unsuitable characters whose appointments had been sought as political favours - the so-called Spoils System. Most personnel changed every four years when the administrations changed. This compared unfavourably with the consular services of the European nations, but gradually by the turn of the twentieth century things...