The Plame affair
Political beginnings
Cub reporter
From Omaha to 'Naptown
Advice from Ezra Pound
Joining the Journal
Emperor of the Senate
Driving with Kennedy
New Frontier
LBJ hosts a wedding reception
The odd couple
The Goldwater revolution
The agony of the GOP
The Great Society: in ascent
The Great Society: in descent
Clean Gene, Bobby and LBJ
Realignment 1968
Den of vipers
Vietnam
The frustration of power
"Amnesty, abortion and acid"
Watergate
The Ford Interlude
Reagan's rebellion
Jimmy who?
The Snopes clan in the White House
Supply-side and China
A young congressman from New York
The birth of CNN
The Reagan revolution
A near-death experience
The slowest realignment in American history
"I'll try Ollie North"
The last days of Reagan
Blowup
Believing their own spin
Yeltsin up, Bush down
Clinton = Republican tsunami
"Will success spoil Newt Gingrich?"
Conversion
The rise of George W. Bush
Death of a partner
Attacking Iraq and attacking Novak
The Plame affair II
Farewell to CNN
A stirrer-up of strife.

In this sweeping memoir, Novak offers a full account of his involvement in the Valerie Plame CIA leak affair, while also telling the story of his remarkable life and career, a singular journey through a half century of stories, scandals, and personal encounters with Washington's most powerful and colorful people. Novak has been a Washington insider since the days when the place was a sleepy southern town and journalism was built on shoe leather and the ability to cultivate and keep sources (not to mention the ability to hold one's liquor). He has covered every president since Truman, known (personally and professionally) virtually all the big movers and shakers in DC, and broken a number of the biggest stories. Here, he puts it all into perspective. He also reveals the extraordinary transformations that have fundamentally remade Washington, politics, and journalism--and his own role in those transformations.