This Day in Presidential History –

08.10.2019
All, Crime, Design, History

1) This Day in Presidential History – Paul Brandus
Bernan Press | 2017 | EPUB

For reference librarians, journalists, social media managers, history buffs, and more, a treasure trove of information about the U.S. presidency for each day of the year from the popular, award-winning White House journalist Paul Brandus. The Atlantic calls Brandus “one of the top Washington insiders you should follow on Twitter” (@WestWingReport).

For each of the 366 days of the year, Brandus offers little-known, fascinating facts; historical anecdotes; and pithy quotations from and about the 45 presidents of the United States—from George Washington to Donald Trump. This Day in Presidential History will surprise its readers with the inside information that Brandus has uncovered in his years on the White House beat.

Here are stories that span war and peace, sex and scandal, frivolity and tragedy—and everything in between, including:
• the night Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth met at Ford’s Theatre—17 months before Booth’s crime,
• the advice Richard Nixon gave Donald Trump,
• the president who immediately went to bed after his swearing in,
• the only president to be censured by the U.S. Senate,
• the president who gambled away the White House china,
• the joyriding teens who crashed into the president’s car—and lived to tell the tale,
• the secret swearing in,
• and much more.

2) Under This Roof: The White House and the Presidency — 21 Presidents, 21 Rooms, 21 Inside Stories – Paul Brandus
Lyons Press | 2015 | EPUB

“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.”