Real Life at the White House: 200 Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence

Real Life at the White House: 200 Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence | Claire Whitcomb | An Interesting Account of Our Presidents

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Real Life at the W...

	Real Life at the White House: 200 Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence Claire Whitcomb Routledge, 2002 - 528 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Celebrate the 200th anniversary of the White House with this richly illustrated new book on America's, if not the world's, most famous residence. Abigail Adams dried her wash in the unfinished East Room. Benjamin Harrison left the lights burning all night because he feared being shocked by the newly installed electric switches. LBJ waged an obsessive battle with the water pressure in the shower, demanding showerheads on all sides. His successor, Richard Nixon, promptly had them removed. The White House has not always been the ideal home, and as each president moved in, he transformed the house in small and large ways to fit his family's needs.

Real Life at the White House celebrates two centuries of domestic life in this historic abode. In forty-two chapters - one for each administration - this stylish sourcebook takes us on an intimate tour of the daily life of each president and his family, bringing into view everything from china patterns to built-in closets (a luxury added during the Truman renovation), from plumbing to telephones (Coolidge refused to use the phone for business) from architectural structure to state dinners and family meals.

Filled with hundreds of anecdotes, photographs, and presidential quotes from Washington(who never lived there but oversaw the first plans) to Clinton, this thoroughly engaging book captures the texture of presidential life while documenting the very human history of a house.

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Great research; fascinating stories

Former White House curator Clement Conger calls this one of the best White House books he's read. White House scholar William Seale also endorses it. I found it full of fasincating stories that really show what it was like for forty families to live in one house over 200 years.

An Interesting Account of Our Presidents

I found this book full of information about the different Presidents and their families and how they adjusted to living in the White House.

There is a lot of information about earlier, less known Presidents, and I enjoyed reading those chapters.

I was also interested to read about all the pets over the years.
Every family seemed to have all sorts of animals.

It was interesting to read about the First Ladies and their "quirks". Mary Todd Lincoln ran up clothing bills that she tried to hide---just like Jackie.

Other stories that I found amusing were that Nixon would not allow guards or policemen to speak to him or Mrs. Nixon. Betty Ford couldn't understand why they ignored her greetings until this was explained to her.

Ronald Reagan served tea to Prince Charles who did not touch it because, as he explained later, he didn't know what to do with the little bag!

Many such amusing stories made this a truly enjoyable book. I recommend to anyone wanting to know about living in the White House.

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Little tidbits

This book provides little tidbits of information that we don't necessarily know about the first families. In some cases the authors left out some things that might have explained why the families were the way they were. The book becomes a bit tedious if read for too long a period of time. Read sparingly and soak it in, don't rush through it.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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