Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists Bernstein and Woodward set the standard for investigative reporting for decades to come with their work on the Watergate scandal. Bernstein (co-author, All the King’s Men) chronicles how he got his start as a newspaperman prior to his ground-breaking career with the Washington Post. As a teenager, he was determined to become a journalist, obtaining his first job as a copyboy at the Washington Star through perseverance, knowledge of the Washington, DC, metro area, and the typing skills he acquired in high school instead of taking the shop classes expected of him at the time. Although not academically inclined, he moved up in the organization through his dedication and hard work, eventually taking on political reporting jobs and doing investigative research for the paper. With engaging writing, he details his path from copyboy to a dictationist to an award-winning journalist, offering insight into the political events he covered along the way. VERDICT Aspiring journalists and readers interested in mid-20th-century news events and politics will enjoy this colorful slice-of-life portrait of a bygone era, where once the clatter of a typewriter and the bustle of a newsroom permeated the newspaper industry.