Customer Reviews

The White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President (Book & CD)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I absolutely loved this collection. The content is wonderful. I want more!

I would give it five stars if it weren't for the audio quality.

There are eight disks plus a disk called "the white house tapes: the president calling". This last disk was just wonderful with good audio quality. You can listen to this online at the american radioworks website. It will get you hooked.

However, the other disks were hit or miss because they can be really difficult to hear. Many disks "Truman, Roosevelt and Eisenhower", (and to a lesser extent Kennedy and Nixon) were completely unintelligible in the car. Think old-time PA system in a concrete room. Johnson was very good, although there were repetitive sounds from the tape recorder. Ford was good too. I guess listening on a home stereo or with headphones might be a different story.

Maybe the recording technology on many of the tapes just wasn't there. You figure with today's technology there would be some way to clean up the audio, especially when you're paying so much for the collection.

okay... this is fantastic. Its great listening to all this stuff! I first heard it on NPR, and then went out to buy the CDs... I absolutely loved it! (it aired again recently, I think... for president's day) So why the 4 stars, instead of 5? Its pricey. But I promise, it's totally worth it too. You just have to bite the bullet on this one.

This collection of recordings, from FDR to Reagan, and although nothing "earth shaking" is revealed, is still an interesting collection. The one thing that detracts from the item is the packaging of the compact discs; which could have been better. A set of sleeves, to hold the discs better (in the cardboard sleeve) instead of "slots"; which allow(s) the discs to slide (especially when shipped by mail) and puts scratches on the discs [which may (or may not) result in "dropouts and defects"] in the discs [particularly with the early (Roosevelt) recordings, it's hard to tell]. Otherwise, a nice item for presidential historians and anyone curious about the Presidency of our nation.