About this item
"Like taking a tour of the White House with a gifted storyteller at your side!"Why, in the minutes before John F. Kennedy was murdered, was a blood-red carpet installed in the Oval Office? If Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, where did he sleep?Why was one president nearly killed in the White House on inauguration day - and another secretly sworn in? 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: Walk with John Adams through the still-unfinished mansion, and watch Thomas Jefferson plot to buy the Louisiana Territory Feel the fear and panic as British invaders approach the mansion in 1814 - and Dolley Madison frantically saves a painting of Washington Gaze out the window with Abraham Lincoln as Confederate flags flutter in the breeze on the other side of the Potomac Be in the room as one president is secretly sworn in, and another gambles away the White House china in a card gameStand by the presidential bed as one First Lady - covering up her husband's illness from the nation - secretly makes decisions on his behalf 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."
About the Author
A frequent speaker at presidential libraries around the United States, social media innovator, columnist and longtime White House correspondent, Paul Brandus is the author of the acclaimed Under This Roof: A History of the White House and Presidency and the upcoming This Day in the Presidency (Bernan/Rowman & Littlefield) . An award-winning member of the White House press corps since 2008, he is the founder of West Wing Reports ® (Twitter: @WestWingReport) , and provides reports for of television and radio outlets around the United States and overseas. He is also a columnist for USA Today and MarketWatch/Dow Jones. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications and platforms, such as CNN, Fox News, Real Clear Politics, National Review and The Week. For The Week, he moderated panel discussions in Washington and around the U.S. on topics like cybersecurity, energy and infrastructure. He has spoken at schools such as the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and served as Executive-in-Residence at Washington & Lee University.Brandus's Twitter account is one of the 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 the Knight Foundation. His career spans network television, Wall Street and several years as a correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program "Marketplace." He has traveled to 53 countries and has reported from, among other places, Iraq, Chechnya, China and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Brandus has served on the Board of Governors of the Overseas Press Club of America, serving as its Washington, D.C. representative. He is also an early stage venture capital investor and as an entrepreneur once purchased the Russian rights to the Super Bowl from the National Football League - becoming the first person to show the championship game in Russia.
