The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency

By Chris Whipple

Categories: History, Politics & Social Sciences

Chris Whipple examines the White House chief of staff, the unelected aide who controls access to the president and can make or break an administration, based on interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two presidents. Chapters run from H. R. Haldeman under Richard Nixon through Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney under Gerald Ford and James A. Baker III under Ronald Reagan to the four chiefs who served Barack Obama, arguing that a more effective chief might have averted Watergate or the Iraq War.

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• Ryan Holiday: “There are lots of books about powerful and famous people. This book is a fascinating look at the man behind the man–the chiefs of staff to the presidency.”