Product Description

This engaging history of the house that has served as home to U.S. presidents for more than two centuries revises and enlarges William Seale's 1986 classic account of the White House's architectural, social, and cultural history. Besides updating the original volumes, the new edition includes chapters on the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. An epilogue covers the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years. The President's House is an unforgettable account of the White House from its origins during the nation's beginning to today, a continuing story of adapting and altering, yet always keeping close to the original image and purpose of the landmark. Seale carefully documents the ways in which different presidents and their families used and lived in the White House, showing not only the lives of the first families but also scores of characters known and unknown who achieve importance in the story and play their parts in the keeping and management of the house -- butlers, housemaids, caterers, gardeners, coachmen, architects, interior decorators, and even fortune-tellers.

Filled with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the private and public lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, this richly detailed social history includes 175 images culled from the White House files and other archival collections.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1314566 in Books
• Published on: 1986
• Format: Box set
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1224 pages

From Library Journal
The 195-year history of the White House is a remarkable saga that is separate from the nation's history, yet an integral part of the lives of the men who held the position of chief executive and their families. Seale's book is a scholarly study of the first families and their home, but he includes anecdotes and interesting tales that will appeal to all readers. Seventy pages of notes attest to Seale's research. The result is a first-rate social history of the White House. The well-written work is divided into 43 chapters involving 32 Presidents from Washington through Truman. In addition, there are 122 black-and-white photographs, most focusing on the White House. Little scholarly work is available on the White House, so Seale's two volumes are particularly valuable. Recommended at all levels. Boyd Childress, Auburn University Library, Ala.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"As the holiday season approaches, we can't think of a classier gift for those on your list who are history buffs or afficionados of White house lore." -- Steve Goddard, History Wire

About the Author

William Seale is a historian. He has published many books on American architecture, including The Tasteful Interlude and Temples of Democracy: The State Capitols of the USA, with Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Seale is the author of The White House: History of an American Idea and of several other books on state capitols, courthouses, and historic restoration. Editor of White House History, the journal of the White House Historical Association, he lives in Texas and Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

The President's House
Often, history is written in broad sweep narratives that can be static and boring to the reader. Although William Seale wrote more than 1,000 pages on the history of the White House, you can be assured that there is nothing static or boring about these volumes. He displays an understanding of the fact that history is about the human drama of real people facing real predicaments, and it's poignance is found in how they react to those predicaments.

Whereas a history book will tell you that the British burned the White House in 1814, Seale tells us what was happening on the DAY the British marched into town. The hundred sentry guards who were supposed to defend the White House were gone, and they could easily have taken on the battalion of 150 British soldiers who marched in the mud down Pennsylvania Avenue, walked around the White House like tourists, ate Dolley Madison's dinner, and then torched the White House with precision. Then there is the even more dramatic moment when Lincoln looked out across the Potomac into Virginia to see the flags of the Confederacy flying, knowing that soon the capital would be surrounded if Maryland seceded from the Union.

The book is a perfect match of comedy and drama with stories ranging from the infestation of rats in the basement to a presidential love story that rivals "The American President," and in places describes a house that you would never imagine to be destined as the symbol of the most powerful nation on earth.

Excellent source of history and personal anecdotes.
William Seale has put together an excellent historical perspective of the history of the White House, including it's construction, reconstruction, and many renovations. The book also recounts the evolution of Washington, D.C. relative to it's relationship with the White House and it's occupants.

Along with describing the physical structure and it's many evolutions, Seale has managed to include a significant amount of history relative to the occupants of the White House, including their personal and political lives. This provides the reader with a good feel for life in the White House. Additionally, most will learn a significant amount about presidents who we simply know by name but not much else.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to those most interested in american history. Although it includes two volumes, the book is such an interesting read that it is hard to put it down.

Wonderful
It has been a while since I read it, so this will be short, but I can tell you that I loved this work. In fact, I read it twice.

Seale takes you through the origins and changes in the house and the property, which is interesting enough to me. But he also takes you, with great detail, through the families and events that occupied and occurred in the President's House. You get a real sense of what life was like there, and how history was made. It is a very interesting story both from a historical house perspective, and a human perspective. I only wish I had bought the leather bound edition.