From Mount Vernon to Crawford A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats

From Mount Vernon to Crawford

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•        Jeff Turrentine - The Washington Post

  Presidents at Play

   

  Thursday, August 25, 2005

  Aaah, here's some light reading for President Bush -- poised, during his current vacation, to become the most relaxed and rested commander in chief ever-- after a long day of bicycling, clearing brush and sidestepping protesters. Kenneth T. Walsh's "From Mount Vernon to Crawford" (Hyperion, $25.95) is an entertaining and illuminating survey of presidential retreats that combines historical research with on-the-job reporting. (Walsh, the chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, has covered the presidency for two decades.)

  That presidents like getting away from Washington should come as no surprise; what's interesting is how and where they choose to do so. As he looks at favored vacation spots throughout history, Walsh makes the case for each as a symbolic extension of a presidential persona. Thus did Hyde Park, Hyannisport and Kennebunkport -- all bastions of East Coast privilege -- do as much to cement the images of FDR, JFK and George H.W. Bush as elite plutocrats as the ranches of LBJ, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did to burnish those presidents' down-home credentials. The classic photo of a grimacing Richard Nixon "relaxing" on the beach in San Clemente, unable or unwilling to shed his dark slacks and dress shoes, is by itself worth the cover price.

  Jeff Turrentine

  © 2005 The Washington Post Company

•        Gilbert Taylor - American Library Association

  Capitalizing on the popularity of Air Force One (2003), journalist Walsh again taps the celebrity-type interest in the trappings of the American presidency--this time in the incumbents' escape destinations from Washington. An anecdote-driven amble, Walsh's tour describes the decor, amenities, menus, and similar trivia. Of more historical relevance, Walsh, who for two decades past has held the White House beat for U.S. News & World Report, explores the recuperative value to presidents of getting out of Washington, and what they've done when out of town. Walsh crafts this information, which encompasses the entertaining, recreational, gustatory, and bibulous habits of vacationing chief executives, into reflections of their personalities. Gregarious ones such as LBJ and Clinton kept a crowd around, while introverts such as Nixon and Reagan cultivated solitude. Either way, official business often intruded, and Walsh narrates^B the momentous decisions presidents have made while down on a ranch or up at Camp David. Looking at every president since FDR, plus Washington, Jefferson, the two Adamses, and Lincoln, Walsh succeeds in sating popular curiosity in presidents' private lives.

  Gilbert Taylor

  Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

   

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