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    Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
    Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
    Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
    Audiobook9 hours

    Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation

    Written by Deborah Davis

    Narrated by Karen White

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner at the executive mansion with the First Family. The next morning, news that the president had dined with a black man-and former slave-sent shock waves through the nation. Although African Americans had helped build the White House and had worked for most of the presidents, not a single one had ever been invited to dine there. Fueled by inflammatory newspaper articles, political cartoons, and even vulgar songs, the scandal escalated and threatened to topple two of America's greatest men.In this smart, accessible narrative, one seemingly ordinary dinner becomes a window onto post-Civil War American history and politics, and onto the lives of two dynamic men whose experiences and philosophies connect in unexpected ways. Deborah Davis also introduces dozens of other fascinating figures who have previously occupied the margins and footnotes of history, creating a lively and vastly entertaining book that reconfirms her place as one of our most talented popular historians.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 29, 2012
    ISBN9781452678573
    Author

    Deborah Davis

    Deborah Davis is the author of Fabritius and the Goldfinch; Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation; Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X; Party of the Century; and Gilded. She formerly worked as an executive, story editor, and story analyst for several major film companies. For more information, visit www.WarholRoadTrip.com and follow along on Instagram @WarholRoadTrip.

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    Reviews for Guest of Honor

    4/5

    33 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. It's one of the best books I have ever read. It's a truly fascinating look back in our history at a time period when slavery had ended but African Americans were by no means welcome in society, especially in the South. It follows the lives of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington - both well known to history, but I had no idea how intertwined and parallel their lives were despite such disparate beginnings.Ms. Davis takes the reader through each man's early years and accomplishments with a balanced look - showing both their positives and negatives. It is not an in depth biography of both men but there is more than enough background to get a solid picture of their life. Booker T. was born a slave but was ambitious and determined to take every advantage of the freedom that came after the Civil War. He was hard working and could seemingly find away around any problem.Teddy Roosevelt was born into a rich, privileged family but was sickly as a child and bullied as a teenager. His father told him to deal with it and so he did. He was full of an irrepressible energy but his life was not all a bed of roses. These two men from such opposite ends of the social sphere were fated to meet and yes, work together in a time that did not respect the intelligence of African American. One simple dinner invitation would almost destroy them both.It was utterly fascinating to see the reaction of the country to Booker T. Washington eating dinner at the White House. It would haunt Teddy Roosevelt throughout his presidency. The book is very well written in alternating chapters detailing each man's life and then dealing with the aftermath of that fateful dinner. It was an interesting look back into the mind of America at the turn of the 20th century as society thought itself so progressive. An interesting comparison to happenings in today's world as well.
    • 4/5
      Great read the story came to light after a comment from Senator John McCain concession speech to President Barack Obama.
    • 5/5
      This book is excellent! It is not just about the dinner in the White House where President Theodore Roosevelt had the audacity of hosting a black man, Booker T. Washington. This book is a double biography of these two famous men with the assassination of President McKinley included, for obvious reasons. If you are at all interested in US history, you should read this. It is hard for us to imagine the uproar it caused but it was a different country that soon after the Civil War. Booker T's visit with Queen victoria didn't cause any stir. There were several parallels between the lives of the two great men. I learned many interesting tidbits, including that Roosevelt didn't like being called Teddy, preferring TR. Also, I found out that W.E.B. Dubois was not a Booker T. Washington fan. I enjoyed the author's style and the information she gave me about this little known dinner as well as many other aspects of that period of US history. I'm tossing this one on my favorites shelf!
    • 2/5
      I tried. I heard about this on NPR ages ago and thought it sounded great. I was listening to the audio book. I made it about half way through but honestly, I had to force myself to listen and had to keep rewinding to follow. it just didn't keep my attention at all.
    • 5/5
      The gobsmacking racism of America still has the capacity to shock when we experience it anew. I knew of Booker T. Washington, but had never paid close attention to his story. Author Deborah Davis does a marvelous job of telling the parallel personal and political histories of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, one born to privilege, and one born in slavery, and the political alliance that flourished between them. That alliance led to an (almost) off-hand and natural invitation to Washington to join the Roosevelt family at the White House for dinner early in his administration. Following the dinner, the firestorm across the South, and the apoplectic outrage at the very idea of a black man dining as a social equal with a white man's family, is just incredible to behold. For anyone who has their eyes and ears open to the racist rhetoric and attitudes of (some of) the opponents of Barack Obama, it is perfectly obvious that today's racists are little changed from 1901's. There is an irredentist racist core to this nation that cannot countenance African Americans as social equals, or see them as having any place at the White House, whether as a guest of the President, or as a President. It is the specific horror of ante-bellum southerners at the idea of social equality and "miscegenation" that is really the most visceral and telling aspect of the whole affair - it exposes the sick emotive heart of racism.

      Davis' use of the White House dinner as a framing device is really a perfect way to tell the two life stories as they move through their separate political careers toward that fateful night and beyond it. The dinner itself was, by all records, calm and unremarkable, although Washington was acutely aware that he was on new social ground. The firestorm that followed was of another order altogether, taking everyone by surprise. TR was not entirely noble. He backed away somewhat from the event, minimizing it, suggesting that it was less than it was, perhaps only "lunch" or perhaps only a business meeting. And Booker T. Washington was mindful not to do or say anything that would harm his alliance with the President. A full throated civil rights defense, a full throated endorsement of social equality, was not heard. Both TR and Washington could hardly believe the maelstrom that their slight extension of their working political alliance into the "social" realm of a family dinner created, and they judiciously backed away from its implications.

      The book is not about the dinner, so much as the careers of two men who lived in parallel. The dinner is at the center of the book and the event epitomizes and frames the horror of ante-bellum racist America, and the occasional small signs of progress that dotted the landscape. It's a quick read, and thoroughly enjoyable. I now know a lot more about both Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington than I did before.
    • 5/5
      A vivid, completely engaging portrait of these two giants of American history and their times. Davis does an excellent job of explaining how and why the single dinner between the two opened up "a Pandora's box of racism."
    • 5/5
      This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. It's one of the best books I have ever read. It's a truly fascinating look back in our history at a time period when slavery had ended but African Americans were by no means welcome in society, especially in the South. It follows the lives of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington - both well known to history, but I had no idea how intertwined and parallel their lives were despite such disparate beginnings.Ms. Davis takes the reader through each man's early years and accomplishments with a balanced look - showing both their positives and negatives. It is not an in depth biography of both men but there is more than enough background to get a solid picture of their life. Booker T. was born a slave but was ambitious and determined to take every advantage of the freedom that came after the Civil War. He was hard working and could seemingly find away around any problem.Teddy Roosevelt was born into a rich, privileged family but was sickly as a child and bullied as a teenager. His father told him to deal with it and so he did. He was full of an irrepressible energy but his life was not all a bed of roses. These two men from such opposite ends of the social sphere were fated to meet and yes, work together in a time that did not respect the intelligence of African American. One simple dinner invitation would almost destroy them both.It was utterly fascinating to see the reaction of the country to Booker T. Washington eating dinner at the White House. It would haunt Teddy Roosevelt throughout his presidency. The book is very well written in alternating chapters detailing each man's life and then dealing with the aftermath of that fateful dinner. It was an interesting look back into the mind of America at the turn of the 20th century as society thought itself so progressive. An interesting comparison to happenings in today's world as well.