Under This Roof: the White House and the Presidency--21 Presidents, 21 Rooms, 21 Inside Stories

Jacket Description/Back: The White House is arguably the most famous building in the world. For more than two centuries what has transpired there reflects the story of the United States and its rapid rise from an exuberant but weak and disorganized new nation to global colossus. It is the ultimate symbol of the nation itself, a place of power and grandeur that has awed emperors and kings, prime ministers and popes, tycoons and movie stars, not to mention the millions of ordinary tourists who have walked its halls. But to the 42 men and their families who have lived here since November 1, 1800, when John Adams moved in, the "Executive Mansion," "President's Palace" or "President's House," is, and has been, something far more mundane: a place to kick back, walk the dog, or fix a sandwich. In other words, home. This dichotomy is reflected in the colorful history that has occurred in the mansion's 132 rooms. From Adams to Obama, Under This Roof will tell 21 of the most interesting stories associated with our Presidents and First Families, in chronological order, bringing a sense of place and context to each. The best way to understand the presidency is through the special building they presided from. The events that shaped America have often started or ended at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, often with the White House becoming part of the story. Some of those narratives peaked in the Oval Office, but more often the most interesting moment occurred in some quieter, domestic event like Edith Wilson running the country from the Master Bedroom, or Barack Obama nervously playing spades in the Private Dining Room before heading down to the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed. These stories will tell not just the history of the event, but will detail the particular room in which the event occurred. The battered office chair Lincoln used as he pondered the Emancipation Proclamation. The overheated, dimly lit Red Room during the secret swearing in of Rutherford B. Hayes. Brandus finds underreported or neglected angles that bring new light and perspective to these stories. The White House has expanded as the country has, gained workspace as the government grew, and embraced technology as the nation did. (Rutherford B. Hayes installed the first telephone and for a time the phone number was simply the number 1.) It now includes the West Wing, the East Wing, and the Executive Residence, with the latter having six stories if you include the basement. Every renovation from the rebuild after it was burned in 1814 to the building of the West Wing and the remodeling under Theodore Roosevelt, Truman and then Kennedy had a larger cultural and political significance. The stories in this book are not the most famous or most important stories in the lives of America's Presidents. However, in each, the White House is almost a character come to life, and each reveals something important about the man at the helm and the growing nation that put him there. Even in this time of relentless coverage of the President's every move, we can forget that he and his advisors are human, with a life filled with smaller personal moments that lead up to the big public ones. Ideally, imagining Nixon in the East Room, worrying what would happen if the moon mission failed, or McKinley in the map room knowing he will start a war he doesn't want to fight, will bring the reader close enough to each moment to imagine what it like to have history resting on your shoulders. Review Quotes: From the still unfinished home for John and Abigail Adams, to the simplicity and splendor of the White House today, Under this Roof is a compelling book that tells the history of its occupants. Paul Brandus shares new stories and the rich history of America s First Families who have shared so much on the public stage and inside America s most famous residence. Quite simply, it s a fascinating read. Steve Scully, C-SPAN Networks"Review Quotes: [I]nventive, smart and engaging. Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief of USA Today"Review Quotes: [A] towering history . . . a riveting narrative. David A. Andelman, Editor & Publisher, World Policy Journal; Columnist, USA Today; and author of Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today"Review Quotes: Paul Brandus has rendered a fast-moving and well-written history of the presidency as told through the lens of the nation s most famous office and home, the White House. Whether he is writing about John F. Kennedy managing the Cuban missile crisis in the Oval Office or a first lady running the country from her incapacitated husband s master bedroom, Brandus is a top-notch tour guide, filling his pages with vivid portraits of presidents and their families at work and play. Del Quentin Wilber, New York Times bestselling author of Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan"Review Quotes: There is no shortage of books about the White House. But in Under This Roof, Paul Brandus has written something different: A book about the White House that is, about the rooms in the president s residence that have been the scene of small moments, crucial meetings and even card games that are intertwined with the nation s history. His approach is inventive, smart and engaging. Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief of USA Today"Brief Description: In this history of the highest office of the United States of America, Paul Brandus, White House-basedjournalist and creator of the enormously popular West Wing Report (200K+ followers) on Twitter (@WestWingReport) focuses on an oft ignored key player the life of the White House itself. Even in this time of relentless coverage of the President s every move, we can forget that he and his advisers are human, with a life filled with smaller personal moments that lead up to the big public ones. Imagine Nixon in the East Room, worrying what would happen if the moon mission fails, or McKinley in the map room knowing he will soon start a war he doesn t want to fight. The events that shaped America have usually started or ended at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, often with the White House becoming part of the story. Some of those narratives peaked in the Oval Office, but more often the most interesting moment occurred in some quieter, domestic event like Edith Wilson running the country from the Master Bedroom, or Obama nervously playing spades in the Private Dining Room before heading down to the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed. These stories will tell not just the history of the event, but will detail, with as much detail as possible, the particular room in which the event occurred. The battered office chair Lincoln used as he pondered the Emancipation Proclamation. The overheated, dimly lit Red Room during the secret swearing in of Rutherford B. Hayes. The stories also mirror, in chronological fashion, the growth of America itself. The White House has expanded as the country has, gained workspace as the government grew, embraced technology as the nation did, and mirrors the dynamism of the United States itself."Biographical Note: An award-winning, independent member of the White House press corps, Paul Brandus founded West Wing Reports (r) in 2009 (Twitter: @WestWingReport) and provides reports for television and radio outlets around the United States and overseas. He is also a Washington columnist forThe Weekand moderates panels for the magazine in Washington and around the U. S. on topics like cybersecurity, energy and infrastructure. He has lectured at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. An innovator in social media, Brandus's Twitter account @WestWingReport is the second biggest among all accredited members of the White House press corps. In 2011, he won the Shorty Award for "Best Journalist on Twitter," sponsored by theKnight Foundation. The Atlantic calls Brandus "One of the top Washington Insiders You Should Follow on Twitter." His career spans network television, Wall Street and several years as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and Public Radio International s award-winning business and economics program Marketplace. He has traveled to 53 countries on five continents and has reported from, among other places Iraq, Chechnya, China and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He began his career as a desk assistant at NBC News Washington and as a U. S. Senate staffer. Brandus sits on the Board of Governors of the Overseas Press Club of America and serves as its Washington, D. C. representative. He lives in Reston, Virginia."Review Quotes: Under This Roof islike taking a tour of the White Housewith a gifted storyteller at your sideilluminatingthe most dramatic moments of American history . Paul Brandus paints a vivid picture. Christina Bellantoni, Editor-in-Chief, Roll Call."Review Quotes: Under this Roof sweeps us into a sensuous account of the history of both the home of the President, and the men and women who designed, inhabited, and decorated it. PaulBrandus captivates with surprising, gloriously raw observations. Mark Santangelo, Chief Librarian and Archivist, The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington"Review Quotes: From the Presidents who gave life to this nation to the one who killed Osama bin Laden, Paul Brandus s Under This Roof is an engaging, endearing profile of the world s most famous residence and the families who called the White House home. Having walked the beat with Paul, I thought I knew just about everything interesting about the presidency until I read his book! Ron Fournier, senior columnist for the National Journal"Review Quotes: In Under This Roof, Paul Brandus has given us a towering history not only of a 120-room mansion that has housed forty-one American presidents, but a history of this institution itself the American presidency. Through this prism he also takes us, with a riveting narrative, through a profile of this nation and its rise from a small collection of former colonies clinging to the eastern seaboard of an all but uncharted continent to a powerful colossus that holds the future of the world in its grasp. David A. Andelman, Editor & Publisher, World Policy Journal; Columnist, USA Today; and author of Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 andthe Price We Pay Today"Review Quotes: [A] fast-moving and well-written history of the presidency . Brandus is a top-notch tour guide, filling his pages with vivid portraits of presidents and their families at work and play. Del Quentin Wilber, New York Times bestselling author of Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan"Review Quotes: [A]n engaging, endearing profile of the world s most famous residence and the families who called the White House home . I thought I knew just about everything interesting about the presidency until I read his book! Ron Fournier, senior columnist for the National Journal"Review Quotes: Quite simply, it s a fascinating read. Steve Scully, C-SPAN Networks"Review Quotes: This fascinating book is stuffed with secrets and little-known tales of presidential intrigue. Larry J. Sabato, New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy"Review Quotes: Paul Brandus brings wit and insight to vivid depictions of the forty-two men, their families, and staff members who have lived and worked at the President s House since 1800. Liberally sprinkled with anecdotes, Under This Roof is a great choice for anyone interested in American History and life in the White House. Libby O Connell, Chief Historian, HISTORY(r) and author of The American Plate"Review Quotes: [A] terrifically fun, smart, and thoughtful exploration of the people who lived in the White House . [A] must-read for anyone with curiosity about what happens within the White House s historic walls. Ben Frumin, Editor-in-Chief, TheWeek.com"Review Quotes: [A] meticulously researched, highly entertaining if these walls could talk biography of the White House and its inhabitants from a writer who makes the reader feel he is there. On this brisk walk through American history, author Paul Brandus shows us the small moments that tell the American story. Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post and Senior Writer for Bloomberg Politics"Publisher Marketing: Like taking a tour of the White House with a gifted storyteller at your side! 1. Why, in the minutes before John F. Kennedy was murdered, was a blood-red carpet installed in the Oval Office? 2. If Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, where did he sleep? 3. Why was one president nearly killed in the White House on inauguration day and another secretly sworn in? 4. What really happened in the Situation Room on September 11, 2001? History leaps off the page in this riveting, fast-moving and highly entertaining book on the presidency and White House in Under This Roof, from award-winning White House-based journalist Paul Brandus. Reporting from the West Wing briefing room since 2008, Brandus the most followed White House journalist on Twitter (@WestWingReport) weaves together stories of the presidents, their families, the events of their time and an oft-ignored major character, the White House itself. From George Washington who selected the winning design for the White House to the current occupant, Barack Obama the story of the White House is the story of America itself, Brandus writes. You ll: 1. Walk with John Adams through the still-unfinished mansion, and watch Thomas Jefferson plot to buy the Louisiana Territory 2. Feel the fear and panic as British invaders approach the mansion in 1814 and Dolley Madison frantically saves a painting of Washington 3. Gaze out the window with Abraham Lincoln as Confederate flags flutter in the breeze on the other side of the Potomac 4. Be in the room as one president is secretly sworn in, and another gambles away the White House china in a card game 5. Stand by the presidential bed as one First Lady covering up her husband s illness from the nation secretly makes decisions on his behalf 6. Learn how telephones, movies, radio, TV changed the presidency and the nation itself Through triumph and tragedy, boom and bust, secrets and scandals, Brandus takes you to the presidential bedroom, movie theater, Situation Room, Oval Office and more. Under This Roof is a sensuous account of the history of both the home of the President, and the men and women who designed, inhabited, and decorated it. Paul Brandus captivates with surprising, gloriously raw observations. "

Contributor Bio:  Brandus, Paul Paul Brandus, an award-winning independent member of the White House press corps, founded West Wing Reports in 2009. He is a contributing columnist for "MarketWatch" and a frequent speaker on presidential leadership and history.