When The White House Was Ours


Book Description

Loosely based on Porter Shreve’s own childhood, When the White House Was Ours is the atmospheric and captivating story of a family’s struggle to stay together against great odds. It’s 1976, and while the country prepares to celebrate the bicentennial, Daniel Truitt’s family is falling apart. His father, Pete, has been fired from yet another teaching job, and his mother, Valerie, is one step away from leaving for good. But when Pete lucks into a crumbling mansion in the nation’s capital, he makes a bold plan to start a school under his own roof where students and teachers will be equals. Replete with the wry humor, human insight, and cultural resonance that characterizes Shreve’s critically acclaimed fiction, When the White House Was Ours will be a joy to anyone whose family has lived through an idealistic time and ended up in an era of compromise.




Where Is the White House?


Book Description

The history of the White House, first completed in 1799, reflects the history of America itself. It was the dream of George Washington to have an elegant "presidential mansion" in the capital city that was named after him. Yet he is the only president who never got to live there. All the rest have made their mark--for better or worse--on the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Megan Stine explains how the White House came to be and offers young readers intriguing glimpses into the lives of the First Families--from John and Abigail Adams to Barack and Michelle Obama.




The Journey to a Little White House


Book Description

From the Permanent Married Quarters of a naval base to the little white house at the end of the road, Lynda M. Buckman and her family have lived a life of fun, adventure, and great love. Military service in their young adulthood and early marriage gave the author and her husband the tools they needed to facilitate strong communication throughout their now five-decades’ long partnership, including in their roles as parents, entrepreneurs, homesteaders, and hobby farmers. In four parts, each encompassing a different home, the author recounts her tales of lessons learned in short anecdotes that are at once comfortingly universal and delightfully original. Told with humour and a lot of heart, The Journey to a Little White House is the story of a wistful dream that became a beautiful reality.




Our Home


Book Description







Nixon's White House Wars


Book Description

From Vietnam to the Southern Strategy, from the opening of China to the scandal of Watergate, Pat Buchanan—speechwriter and senior adviser to President Nixon—tells the untold story of Nixon’s embattled White House, from its historic wins to it devastating defeats. In his inaugural address, Nixon held out a hand in friendship to Republicans and Democrats alike. But by the fall of 1969, massive demonstrations in Washington and around the country had been mounted to break his presidency. In a brilliant appeal to what he called the “Great Silent Majority,” Nixon sent his enemies reeling. Vice President Agnew followed by attacking the blatant bias of the media in a fiery speech authored and advocated by Buchanan. And by 1970, Nixon’s approval rating soared to 68 percent, and he was labeled “The Most Admired Man in America”. Them one by one, the crises came, from the invasion of Cambodia, to the protests that killed four students at Kent State, to race riots and court ordered school busing. Buchanan chronicles Nixon’s historic trip to China, and describes the White House strategy that brought about Nixon’s 49-state landslide victory over George McGovern in 1972. When the Watergate scandal broke, Buchanan urged the president to destroy the Nixon tapes before they were subpoenaed, and fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, as Nixon ultimately did in the “Saturday Night Massacre.” After testifying before the Watergate Committee himself, Buchanan describes the grim scene at Camp David in August 1974, when Nixon’s staff concluded he could not survive In a riveting memoir from behind the scenes of the most controversial presidency of the last century, Nixon’s White House Wars reveals both the failings and achievements of the 37th President, recorded by one of those closest to Nixon from before his political comeback, through to his final days in office.







The White House


Book Description

The White House, first published in 1937, is a fascinating look at the building—and rebuilding —of the presidential White House as well as vivid descriptions and insights into the lives of the ‘first families’ who lived there (from John Adams up to Franklin Roosevelt), and of the changes each new President brought to the building, its interior and grounds, and to the surrounding city. Following its construction at the turn of the 19th century, the White House was for a long period uncompleted, neglected, and trampled by hordes of careless visitors, as well as home to successive presidents and their families attempting to conduct the nation’s business, host numerous parties and provide lodging for visiting foreign dignitaries. Renovations were on-going, and each First Lady would change rooms to reflect her own or the prevailing interior style popular at the time. Additions to the cramped quarters were planned and usually rejected. Concurrently, Washington D.C. was changing from a disease-ridden swamp with unpaved, muddy streets, into a planned city with wide paved boulevards on the Parisian model. Included are 16 pages of illustrations depicting changes in the exterior and interior of the White House since its construction.










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