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

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Review

“Robert Klara's The Hidden White House will give you unique insight into the building our presidents live and work in. A tour de force narrative, this detailed history will give you a one-of-a-kind look into America's most famous house.” ―Newt Gingrich, New York Times bestselling author of Victory at Yorktown“Robert Klara brings the White House--its occupants, its rooms, even its swinging chandeliers--vividly to life in this gripping work of history. The book is rich with historical and architectural detail, and Klara, a brilliant storyteller, shows us why Truman's plan to restore the White House was an act not only of necessity, but of audacity.” ―Jeff Shesol, former speechwriter to President Bill Clinton and author of Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court“Robert Klara has crafted an unexpected and captivating story of the overhaul of America's most famous residence. While every first family lends its own personal touch to the White House, it is usually in the form of china patterns and drapes. President Truman, on the other hand, had the place gutted―because it was threatening to collapse around him. From bathtubs to bomb shelters, Klara leaves no piece of crumbling sandstone unturned and is as astute a storyteller as he is a dogged researcher. His efforts have resulted in a rich and layered look at this unique episode in American history. Hidden White House is populated by complicated and quirky characters but Klara wisely saves the spotlight for the real star, The White House herself, as she narrowly escapes annihilation. We can be thankful she survived, imperfections and all, and that Klara has brought her story to light.” ―Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author of Girls of Atomic City“Money troubles, war with congress, fights with patriotic societies, an attempted assassination of the President, the building of an atom bomb shelter, lost contents – the saga of the gutting and recreation of the "Great White Jail" that is the nation's White House is as dramatic as was Truman's presidency. In Robert Klara's riveting yet scholarly account it becomes no less than the story of America, as the U.S. becomes the world's foremost superpower – with the reconstructed White House its symbolic and literal heart.” ―Nigel Hamilton, author, American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents, From Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush“A delightful and informative narrative… Klara brings the reconstruction’s major players―including Truman and his family, architect Lorenzo Winslow, and contractor John McShain―to life in sharp prose, infusing this cracks-and-crevices expose with plenty of entertaining drama.” ―Publishers Weekly“Robert Klara has proven the old adage to be true -- if walls could speak what stories they would tell! Ghosts. Diplomats. Washington backscratching. The Hidden White House has it all in a fabulous romp across the landscape of American history as viewed through the prism of our most iconic residence. Hats off to Klara! A beautifully written book filled with quirky characters and amazing stories.” ―L. Douglas Keeney, author of 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation“There's a story that when Ronald Reagan first arrived at the White House, he asked to see the ‘War Room,' presuming it looked just like the screen version from Dr. Strangelove. Which is to say, we all have our fantasies about the hidden life behind the stately white columns of America's most famous home--most of them false. Robert Klara's entertaining secret history of White House tells how it became the place we think we know but don't, proving the adage that truth can be stranger than fiction.” ―Mark Lamster, architecture critic, Dallas Morning News“Robert Klara's The Hidden White House serves as a landmark study of the post-World War II redefinition of America's premier residence. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, this book casts deserved new attention on a favorite subject, highlighting the masterful walking of the fine line between preserving an historic shrine and fabricating a modern fortress and television-ready backdrop. Whether historian, architect, or homeowner (fresh from the throes of your own renovation), The Hidden White House affords an entertaining history lesson.” ―James Archer Abbott, director and curator, Johns Hopkins University's Evergreen Museum and Library; author of Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration“Gossipy… Characters, famous and relatively obscure, flit in and out of the narrative, creating frequently humorous situations…. Enjoyable.” ―Booklist“Klara's focused history will intrigue architectural history enthusiasts along with presidential history buffs and others who will appreciate a part of White House history that has been forgotten by many.” ―Library Journal“In the manner of Bob Greene's Once Upon a Town or Jody Rosen's White Christmas . . . Klara charms as he informs. A little gem.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred) on FDR's Funeral Train“Klara has put together a thrilling piece of history. . . . [he] has managed to provide a fresh look at history as well as the political landscape of the twenty–first century.” ―The Daily Beast on FDR's Funeral Train“Full of fascinating anecdotes. . . . This is popular history at its best: engaging, informative and insightful. It is very well written and . . . a pure pleasure to read . . . sheds welcome light on a fascinating and largely forgotten episode.” ―Christian Science Monitor on FDR's Funeral Train

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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.

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Product details

Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (October 21, 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 9781250053930

ISBN-13: 978-1250053930

ASIN: 1250053935

Product Dimensions:

5.4 x 1 x 8.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.6 out of 5 stars

172 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#255,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

The Hidden White House by Robert Klara is an extremely interesting book and covers a subject that I admittedly knew very little about. President Harry Truman authorized the rebuilding of the White House in 1948 after he almost plunged through the ceiling of the Blue Room while enjoying a bath. Good that he didn't, because he would have ended up in a DAR tea party. The mansion was inspected and found to be in terrible shape. The Trumans moved to the Blair House, and the White House was gutted. The rebuilding continued from there.Mr. Klara has written a fascinating book, and I recommend it highly to any readers interested in Presidential history.

This would really be a 4.5 star review if Amazon allowed half stars.It's one of those little known facts about America's most famous residence: There have really been two White Houses; the one designed by James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800, and the one designed by President Truman (along with White House Architect Lorenzo Winslow and the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion) that was built by John McShain between 1949 and 1952. The two structures really only share a general layout and the same four outer walls.This bit of historical trivia has always fascinated me, the construction of a modern building within a centuries-old facade, and I had been eager for a while to learn more about it.Robert Klara weaves his exhaustive research into a peppy narrative that moves along at brisk, engaging pace. He does a terrific job of exploring the scope of the problem and is quite successful at capturing the distinct voices and personalities of the various players involved in solving it. In addition to learning a lot about the White House, I learned a lot about Truman the president and Truman the man. Klara is not awestruck by his subject matter, and his book is as attuned to flaws and shortcomings as it is to triumphs. His citations are staggeringly comprehensive, and provide a great road map for the reader that wants to dig even deeper into any given aspect of the particular historic project.I only have two real complaints: 1) Sometimes, in his attempts to spice up the storytelling of what could have easily been a dry treatise, he's a bit too bold about putting himself into the heads of the participants, declaratively presenting private thoughts that can only be assumptions based on educated conclusions. He also dwells overlong at times on irrelevant bits of color, particularly Lorenzo Winslow's fascination with séances and the occult. 2) The book only includes sixteen pages of photographs in a glossy insert near the center. The photos that we do get are excellent, but the book would have benefited from even more of Abbie Rowe's incredible black and white photography, scattered throughout in context within the narrative.

I'll be forever grateful that I found this book. The White House is one of the dearest and most precious places in the country, YET, most Americans know so very little about it. Robert Klara will SHOCK you while entertaining you, as he brilliantly lets you "live" in the White House with Harry Truman while Truman has to come to grips with a little known catastrophic secret about the White House; a secret that changed the President's house forever. If you like American History (or even if you don't.... yet) this book is a must read. You will know more about the White House than almost every other American. Did you know that you can buy 225 year old, historic pieces of the White House? Either did I.

I'd seen the author interviewed on Book TV and decided to order a copy right then and there. It turned out to be one of the best gifts I'd ever given myself. I had known that Truman had spent much of his presidency in Blair House but I never understood why. Then, when Robert Klara opens the book by describing how Truman was taking a bath and almost ended up falling through the ceiling while a group of DAR ladies were sipping tea in the Blue Room below (because the physical structure of the White House was so catastrophically weak), I laughed my sides off at the image. And that was just the beginning! It's a wonderful read all the way through as he describes all the prima donna specialists involved in the reconstruction, many of whom didn't get along with each other, and makes a little known story an absolute gem to read. It almost reads like a novel, but as the old saying goes, "You can't make this stuff up!"

As a news photographer who has covered the White House for fifty-three years, I’d had the honor and good fortune to walk through the White House grounds Northwest gate, (after a tight security check), and look to my left and marvel at the magnificent building that we have for our presidents. I knew a little about the Truman restoration, certainly the assassination attempt at Blair House, but I knew very little about the nuts & bolts of the massive project that took place in Harry Truman’s only full term as president.THE HIDDEN WHITE HOUSE: HARRY TRUMAN AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS RESIDENCE, by Robert Klara is a wonderful story about the politics and problems that President Truman faced to begin and finish a task that he thought we as Americans needed done. Lots of little details and characters make this book more than just a dull book on an aspect of American history: stories about Abbe Rowe, the crippled Interior Department line gang worker who sent First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt a photograph. The First Lady asked him to come to the White House as a photographer and he documented the entire restoration process with great care. The mystery of a hidden bomb shelter being built in the basement--bomb shelters were big about 1950. Many others, that make this book worth the reader’s time.

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