Customer Reviews

The President's House

5 star:		(11)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Did you know that George Washington, who never lived in the White House, actually surveyed the site to find the best location? Americans have a great many symbols, such as our flag and our monuments. But the White House is the complete personification of our entire history. There are many stories in that house - the people's house. And there are many stories in this double-volume set.
History buffs will be entranced. It's like a Harry Potter book - you enjoy the story and don't want it to end. And - if we can continue to make democracy work - it won't have to end. We have many freedoms to protect, and, as the bumper sticker says - "Freedom is not free". Hopefully, there will eventually be Volumes 3 and 4!!

I've read the two volumes cover to cover and will read them again. An engrossing American panorama, in my thinking, told through the White House.

Wonderful book! I have learned so much about the House and also about the Presidents and First Ladies.

It's axiomatic to say that the White House has seemingly been there forever, so discovering the real history of this national treasure is replete with surprise, tragedy, romance, deception and above all distinction. William Seale, commissioned by the White House Historical Association in 1966 to author a proposed 250 page summary of it's architecture, does a great service for the country and historian as he pens a truly marvelous history of the house and, with it, a unique recanting of it's distinguished occupants.

With George Washington's original idea and subsequent search for a designer in 1792 through the Truman presidency, we see (in two large volumes) the evolution of America through a unique set of eyes and circumstances. Professing to cover history as it pertains to the house, Seale provides a remarkable perspective on the building/expansion of a national landmark and thus, necessarily, American history. There are so many novel stories and quirks of human existence here that the reader truly feels as though they are a part of it's family. From the burning of the original house by the British in 1814 to it's reconstruction in 1817 to Monroe's exquisite furnishings and south portico addition, Jackson's north portico, Fillmore's landscaping and first electric lighting under Benjamin Harrison, Seale's story makes one feel as though it's their house...a unique ownership component is immediately present here.

Not limiting himself to the White House proper, we learn about the immediate west of the house where Jackson had a horse stable, Hayes built a greenhouse and finally TR added office space (he and his large family overtook the main house, thus a need for additional working area) that ultimately became the West Wing. Taft's expansion of the West Wing to include an Oval Office, a fire in 1929 nearly gutting the West Wing complex and finally expansion by FDR to move the Oval to where it resides today are all necessarily covered topics juxtaposed onto the real beauty of this account...the people. Both the famous and not so famous make significant contributions to the house and, by virtue, give this history an amazing depth. From landscapers, ushers, cooks and housekeepers, Seale expounds on the human element and seamlessly integrates these otherwise common folk majestically into the history of the house and by virtue, the presidency.

There are many staples in history that the prospective historian almost must master...after reading The Presidents House by William Seale, this multi volume narrative has to be part of it. A marvelous balance of history, architecture and the people element, Seale paints a majestic story...one worthy of the White House itself. Highest recommendation.

I first read volume 1 of this 2 book set of the history of the White House while on vacation in Florida over 20 years ago. I have since searched continually for the set......even searching on Amazon. I was so excited to see it finally pop up on Amazon....and immediately ordered my set. It is a PRIZE! It contains a very detailed history of the house itself, with all the changes it went through from the beginning, but also the story of all the First Families who have lived there up to and including President George Herbert Walker Bush. I could hardly put it down, but the way it is written...lends itself to occasional reading! I hightly recommend it! It is a treasure!

I have the original 2 volume edition of this set and just couldn't wait to get the updated version. What a treat to have so much information on the White House and presidential families in one place!! You will not be disappointed with this purchase!

For history buffs this is a dream come true. It give the insider view of the construction and how our presidents have lived in the White House.