Chasing History

A Kid in the Newsroom

By: Carl Bernstein

Narrated by: Carl Bernstein, Robert Petkoff

The digital version of this audiobook contains an introduction read by Carl Bernstein.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of All the President’s Men—the chronicle of the investigative report about the Watergate break-in and resultant political scandal which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation—recalls his formative years as a teenage newspaper reporter in JFK’s Washington—a tale of adventures, scrapes, clever escapes, and the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Carl Bernstein, Washington Star.”

With these words, the sixteen-year-old senior at Montgomery Blair High School set himself apart from the high school crowd and set himself on a track that would define his life. Carl Bernstein was far from the best student in his class—in fact, he was in danger of not graduating at all—but he had a talent for writing, a burning desire to know things that other people didn’t, and a flair for being in the right place at the right time. Those qualities got him inside the newsroom at the Washington Star, the afternoon paper in the nation’s capital, in the summer of 1960, a pivotal time for America, for Washington, D.C., and for a young man in a hurry on the cusp of adulthood.

Chasing History opens up the world of the early 1960s as Bernstein experienced it, chasing after grisly crimes with the paper’s police reporter, gathering colorful details at a John F. Kennedy campaign rally, running afoul of union rules, and confronting racial tensions as the civil rights movement gained strength. We learn alongside him as he comes to understand the life of a newspaperman, and we share his pride as he hunts down information, gets his first byline, and discovers that he has a talent for the job after all.

By turns exhilarating, funny, tense, and poignant, Chasing History shows us a country coming into its own maturity along with young Carl Bernstein, and when he strikes out on his own after five years at the Star, his hard-won knowledge and experience feels like ours as well.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company



"Narrator Robert Petkoff, with an occasional assist from the author, takes listeners back to the beginning. Sounding like an indulgent grandfather telling his life story to his grandchildren, Petkoff recounts how a scrappy high schooler managed to worm his way into the WASHINGTON STAR newsroom at age 16.... This audiobook will provide hope to any would-be journalist." --AudioFile

Carl Bernstein's tale of his early years in the news business

This audiobook has more detail about the author's career than I cared to hear, and yet his enthusiasm for every aspect of how a newspaper works is infectious, and also fascinating. Also worth hearing are Bernstein's accounts of important people and events during the 1960s.

Sentimental fun read for news room junkies and DC lovers

I enjoyed this book so much, largely because I grew up in Northern Virginia/DC, and I remember so many of the places and events in history Bernstein talks about. My mom subscribed to The Washington Star, and as a little girl I loved reading the front page and dreaming of becoming a reporter there some day. By the time I got to a newsroom the Star was gone, but I loved being in that environment, learning from wise old editors from The Post and The Star, feeling like I was doing something important. So reading Bernstein’s account of his early days, chasing history, and recalling a time when newspapers thrived was so much fun.

I loved how his writing makes you feel you were right there with him in DC, sharing details and events in of the different places like Silver Spring, NW DC, Georgetown, Anacostia, and the history he witnessed and reported on that was part of the local and national narrative.

It was also very fun to learn more about Bernstein’s beginning at age 16 when he started skipping school to be at the paper, flunked out of University, dictated copy for big shots in news, and reported on some of the most important stories of our time…well before Watergate. Fun listen. The only thing I missed was hearing Bernstein narrate it himself. Although he does make a cameo in the Epilogue.

Clarity. Fluidity. Context… Everything!

I loved it! I did not grow up in the US. I am thirsty for history! I always admired the author and respected his journalism testimony.

Kid in a Candy Store

I am a politics and news freak. Have been since I was a child. I remember where I was when JFK was shot—on a playground in elementary school. I remember LBJ's "...I shall not seek..." speech. I was obsessed with Watergate. The entirety of 1973 was one, big Watergate story. I was on vacation with my friend and his parents as a lad of seventeen in Port Aransas, Texas the week before Nixon resigned.

There was no television in our cabin. On the night of August 8, 1974, we all gathered in the house on stilts of the proprietors of Gibbs Cottages to watch the speech. My friend's father was a diehard Republican. He was certain that Nixon would "tough it out." I knew better. My friend knew nothing of politics; he had no opinion. I'll never forget Nixon walking up the steps of the helicopter the next day—no longer Marine One since noon had passed—and turning around to wave to the crowd.

As much as I despised Nixon, he's always been a fascinating figure to me. I've read more biographies on Richard Nixon than any other person. Many years later, when Nixon waged a campaign to "rehabilitate" his legacy, I happened to tune in to C-Span, where he spoke on foreign policy, his strong suit IMO.

For almost two hours, I saw Nixon on that stage, walking and talking. There was a chair, but he never sat down. For that time, he spoke extemporaneously on the subject, without notes. At that moment, I begrudgingly admired him. He had visited China!

I cried when I heard he had passed away. It's a shame that he did not use his vast intellect in a positive way. Had he done so, and not given in to the dark side of his personality, he might have been a successful president.

I devoured books on Watergate, in all decades.

In this book, Carl Bernstein took us back to when journalism, post-Watergate, became the most popular major in college campuses across the United States. His telling of the events he covered, JFK's assasination, speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., the March on Washington, and many more, takes you to the scene, as if you are there with him.

When the narrator said, "Epilogue," I was shocked. I didn't want it to end.

In this "post-truth" world, where everyone is free to create their own narrative of history, true or not, it's increasingly hard to determine which sites, which authors, which reporters, which commentators, are worth listening to or reading. Carl Bernstein is one of the last of his breed: "old school," the "real deal."

He mentioned fine journalists like Haynes Johnson and David Broder, now gone, who I watched for many years on Washington Week in Review in its glory days, when Paul Duke hosted. (Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser followed.) Those days are gone. What a shame.

Anyone who lives and breathes politics and history, as I do, will enjoy this book immensely. And they will remember it. For a long time.

Beginnings of a Star Journalist

This is a lovely account of Carl Bernstein's first job in journalism. At 16, he became a copyboy for the Washington Star. Read in part by Carl himself, it describes his hometown of Washington DC and its people, in and out of government & journalism, through 5 of its most significant years & how those years shaped one of the most important reporters of our time. It's as thick with events and personalities as the Star itself - a joy to listen to.