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

Klara, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250000270 ISBN 13: 9781250000279

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2013

Synopsis

Critically acclaimed author Robert Klara leads readers through an unmatched tale of political ambition and technical skill: the Truman administration's controversial rebuilding of the White House.

In 1948, President Harry Truman, enjoying a bath on the White House's second floor, almost plunged through the ceiling of the Blue Room into a tea party for the Daughters of the American Revolution. A handpicked team of the country's top architects conducted a secret inspection of the troubled mansion and, after discovering it was in imminent danger of collapse, insisted that the First Family be evicted immediately. What followed would be the most historically significant and politically complex home-improvement job in American history. While the Trumans camped across the street at Blair House, Congress debated whether to bulldoze the White House completely, and the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb, starting the Cold War.

Indefatigable researcher Robert Klara reveals what has, until now, been little understood about this episode: America's most famous historic home was basically demolished, giving birth to today's White House. Leaving only the mansion's facade untouched, workmen gutted everything within, replacing it with a steel frame and a complex labyrinth deep below ground that soon came to include a top-secret nuclear fallout shelter,

The story of Truman's rebuilding of the White House is a snapshot of postwar America and its first Cold War leader, undertaking a job that changed the centerpiece of the country's national heritage. The job was by no means perfect, but it was remarkable―and, until now, all but forgotten.

About this title

About the Author

ROBERT KLARA is the author of the critically acclaimed 2010 book FDR's Funeral Train, which historian and author Douglas Brinkley called "a major new contribution to U.S. history." Klara has been a staff editor for several magazines including Adweek, Town & Country and Architecture. His freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, American Heritage, and The Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. Klara makes his home in New York City.

Reviews

By 1949, according to Klara, the White House was in an advanced state of decrepitude. Wooden beams were rotting, floors were dangerously unstable, some timbers had scorch marks from the British burning during the War of 1812, and the foundation was sinking at an accelerated rate. So a three-year renovation project was launched, which basically gutted the interior while keeping the façade intact. In this gossipy, sometimes amusing, sometimes irritating account, Klara describes how the interior arrived at its present form. Characters, famous and relatively obscure, flit in and out of the narrative, creating frequently humorous situations. Klara writes with a strong sense of the ironic, and he is careful to point out that more substantive world events were going on under Truman’s watch. This is a light, generally enjoyable look at a historical sideshow. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250000270
• ISBN 13: 9781250000279
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384