The Final Days is a 1976 non-fiction book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal.

Not long after the resignation of Richard Nixon in August 1974, Woodward and Bernstein took a leave of absence from The Washington Post in order to begin work on the book.

[2] They hired two research assistants, Scott Armstrong and Al Kamen, and among them they interviewed 394 people involved in the tale.

[1][3] People were anxious to talk in an effort to get their (sometimes self-serving) perspective on the events included in the narrative, and almost all of the sources were promised anonymity in return.

"[2] According to Jon Marshall's 2011 retrospective look at Watergate and the press, although Bernstein got co-equal credit on the cover, he in fact did relatively few interviews and not only less of the writing than Woodward, but also less than either Armstrong or Kamen.

[2] Release of the book was preceded by the publishing of excerpts in Newsweek magazine, which included a number of the authors' more vivid narrations.

The first carries on from where All the President's Men leaves off, in particular from April 30, 1973, when John Dean, the White House counsel, was fired, and brings the narrative through developments of later in 1973 and then up to late July 1974.

[2] Part II consists of a day-by-day account of the title-referenced final days, beginning with "Wednesday, July 24" and continuing through "Friday, August 9".

There is also a Cast of Characters at the beginning, starting at Robert Abplanalp and finishing with Ronald L. Ziegler, and a Chronology at the end, running from November 5, 1968 through August 9, 1974.

[9] The book was the last collaboration between Woodward and Bernstein; quite dissimilar in personality, and with different approaches towards their newfound wealth, they soon went their separate ways, although they have remained close friends.

In it they said that subsequent archival evidence and other historical accounts indicated that in the words of the column's title, "Nixon was far worse than we thought."

Making reference to The Final Days, the pair said that their inclusion of anti-Semitic remarks and attitudes by Nixon in the book had been borne out by later revelations.

[21] Kissinger's 1982 memoir Years of Upheaval calls the Woodward and Bernstein narrative "an unfeeling account" but presents a description of the encounter that is not that far away from theirs.