by Mike Purdy | Sep 25, 2018 | Harry Truman, Uncategorized, White House
When Harry Truman assumed the presidency in 1945 upon Franklin D Roosevelt’s death, the White House was a dangerous place. The 145-year-old home of the president was ready to collapse and presented serious safety issues for those working and living in it. White...
by Mike Purdy | Sep 10, 2018 | Books, Homes, Jimmy Carter
If you want to know what has shaped and made Jimmy Carter the man he is, you have to soak in the ambience of the small town of Plains, Georgia. It was here on October 1, 1924 that the future president was born. And it is in Plains that Carter has always returned, and...
by Mike Purdy | Sep 3, 2018 | Calvin Coolidge, Donald Trump, Events, John Tyler, Presidential Sites, Secret Service, Uncategorized, Vice-Presidents, White House
I left the air-conditioned comfort of the elegant Willard Hotel – the long-established “Residence of the Presidents” – a little after 5:00 pm. I immediately felt like I had just been immersed into a hot and muggy sauna. Welcome to Washington, DC! It was a sweltering...
by Mike Purdy | Aug 13, 2018 | Donald Trump, Events, White House
I’ll be in Washington, DC attending the Presidential Sites Summit during the last week of August. It’s a conference sponsored by the White House Historical Association and will bring together more than 200 presidential historians, archivists, museum/library managers...
by Mike Purdy | Aug 2, 2018 | Books
Presidential biographers continue to churn out an amazing flow of new books about the presidents. It’s hard to keep up with them all! Steve Floyd, who has been reading and reviewing presidential biographies since late 2012, has compiled a list of upcoming and...