Thursday, May 04, 2017

The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence

My book for May was The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence by Robert Klara. This is part of my long term project to read books about all of the presidents. I stumbled upon this book when I was reading one of Klara's other books. It was a nice follow-up to the No Ordinary Time book that I read.

We got a chance to tour the White House in 2011. I was very surprised to learn that they essentially gutted the house during Truman's second term. They left the facade and built a concrete and steel interior.

In addition to a good summary of the White House reconstruction, the book is a nice look at the Truman presidency. It is an interesting view of the windup of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Although I read the McCullough Truman biography years ago, I had forgotten that there was an assassination attempt while they were living in the Blair House and that Truman enjoyed going to Key West to relax.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I give it an "A" and recommend it!

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