cover image The White House: The First Two Hundred Years

The White House: The First Two Hundred Years

. Northeastern University Press, $30 (288pp) ISBN 978-1-55553-170-6

Edited by the late Freidel, the noted FDR scholar, and Pencak, professor of history at Pennsylvania State University, these scholarly essays are full of interesting and surprising tidbits that will delight even the casual reader. David Herbert Donald's piece on the Lincoln White House (``This Damned Old House,'' the president dubbed it) is haunted by war, death and seances. John Milton Cooper adds an excellent essay on presidential disability, centering on Woodrow Wilson. In Robert Ferrell's ``The Expanding White House,'' we learn that the Roosevelts were responsible for major additions: the West Wing belongs to Teddy and the East Wing to FDR. We also discover from Ferrell that McKinley liked to work smoking a cigar and singing a hymn, and that William Taft built the Oval Office. Elise Kirk reminds us of the White House's musical heritage--and that the Marine Corps Band inadvertently struck up a rousing rendition of ``The Lady Is a Tramp'' one evening while President Ford and the Queen of England were dancing. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Dec.)