Customer Reviews

Dream House: The White House as an American Home

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Authors Dietz and Watters have done an admirable job of presenting an interesting new Decorative Arts study of this beloved public and private landmark, known around the world simply as The White House. I have four other books on The White House plus numerous others such as those about McKim Mead & White, Sister Parish, and Maison Jansen that partially feature it. And I particularly enjoyed all the new information, photos, and drawings that I had not seen before despite some of the inevitable over-laps in this book. But the main point of DREAM HOUSE, THE WHITE HOUSE AS AN AMERICAN HOME is the evolution of the building and how it influenced residential architecture of the day and vice-versa.

Rejected designs along with comparisons of other stately homes are studied with the development of the building as house, reception venue, office building and museum. Chapters include the phases the White House has gone through as Country House, Villa, Mansion, Palace, Suburban Home, and Shrine. While not every administration is covered, major contributions -- and relapses -- by Presidents and First Ladies Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Polk, Fillmore, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, both Roosevelts, Wilson, Harrison, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Regan, and Clinton are among those shown.

The last photo shows Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass meeting with school children to plant a kitchen garden, returning to the early ideals of sustainability. The development and redevelopment of the 82 acre site are also presented, showing the changing gardens and greenhouses over the years.

Various decorative schemes and furnishings make up a major portion of the book, with the many architects, designers, decorators, trade sources, department stores, and committee members discussed from Pierre L'Enfant and James Hoban to Kaki Hockersmith and Michael Smith. In addition, there are extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index. This is an attractive and impressive study of the world's most famous building, The White House, recommended for all whole appreciate historic architecture and the decorative arts.

My husband is very pleased with this book from Amazon.com. He has been watching it at a number of bookstores. Its great pictures of the changing White House interiors throughout numerous presidencies is very interesting. Many unique historical facts by Ulysses G. Dietz who is Ulysses S. Grant's great-grandson.

We got it for a great price here at Amazon.com. It rests on our living room coffee table. Highly recommended.

With all the existing books, websites, TV specials at al. devoted to the history and decoration of the White House, one might be excused for questioning the need for another, but this effort by Ulysses Dietz & Sam Watters demonstrates that belief to be decidedly wrong. Using the development of the W.H. as an unfailing barometer of the nation's changing tastes and ambitions, the authors trace its evolution from monumental edifice somewhat at odds with the primative little
republic it represented to worldwide symbol of American stature and progress. Beautifully illustrated with a host of floorplans, interiors and landscaping
plats, its detailed and thoughtful text explores the changing meaning of the building as well as documenting the stylistic changes it has undergone over its 200+ year history. Kudos to its creators for a worthy and valuable effort.

This book - beautifully designed, intelligently written, readable, and original in its analysis of the White House as evolving with the history of the American home - makes a contribution to American history. New observations and attributions are interesting to read and look at.

Writing something new about famous buildings is complicated by long-held, accepted interpretations. This book, as elegant as the White House itself, makes a remarkable contribution towards understanding 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in ways that reflect our own times. Dream House is subtly complex, at times provocative, always engaging.

Poorly written, mostly cribbed from earlier books on the White House. Skips over a number of administrations, presidents and their wives.
little that you couldn't find elsewhere.
Very snide view of most of the decorating of the past and on going style.
Seems like Newark,New Jersey is the ideal for style.
Author is the many times descendant of one of the more forgettable presidents, Grant and even he and his wife are not documented all that well.
A few new photographs, but many from previous volmes. A major disappointment from Acanthus Press and we have two more volumes to suffer through.