Written by historians and journalists, this collection of essays is an outgrowth of the two-hundredth anniversary symposium sponsored by the White House Historical Association.

Roles of the president's house / Daniel J. Boorstin -- Becoming a national symbol: The White House in the early nineteenth century / Robert V. Remini -- America's house: The bully pulpit on Pennsylvania Avenue / Richard Norton Smith -- "This damned old house": The Lincolns in the White House / David Herbert Donald -- Disability in the White House: The case of Woodrow Wilson / John Milton Cooper, Jr. -- The expanding White House: Creating the East and West Wings / Robert H. Ferrell -- The press, protesters, and presidents / Eugene L. Roberts, Jr., and Douglas B. Ward -- The president and the media: An adversarial but helpful relationship / George E. Reedy -- Using the White House to further political agendas / Edwin M. Yoder, Jr. -- The First Lady's changing role / Betty Boyd Caroli -- Music at the White House: Legacy of American romanticism / Elise K. Kirk -- Epilogue: A house set in a landscape / David McCullough.