Under This Roof

September 14, 2015
Beltway journalist Brandus dishes the dirt on the intimate history of the White House and its mythic residents, past and present, in this accessible overview of the major historic events faced by those installed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He starts with the rift between rivals John Adams and Thomas Jefferson concerning First Amendment rights, and moves on to the torching of the chief residence of James Madison by British soldiers during the War of 1812. But Brandus seems more in his element as he shares trivia and other tidbits about Honest Abe never sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom, stroke-afflicted Woodrow Wilson being bedridden on the second floor, Warren G. Harding's flings and cover-ups, F.D.R.'s Fireside Chats, J.F.K.'s Camelot and the blood-red carpet laid in the Oval Office a day before his tragic Dallas trip, Richard Nixon's disdain for the press in their new Briefing Room, Ronald Reagan with his family theater, and Barack Obama watching the Osama bin Laden raid in the Situation Room. Brandus crams this book full of facts and political chatter to make it fun for history buffs and the simply curious.