Walsh, a White House correspondent for over 20 years, traces the relationships of the 44 US presidents to the perennially complex issue of race, using the microcosm of the predominantly Black White House domestic staff to illustrate both the president's and the nation's evolving attitudes and practices. Through a mixture of history lesson and engaging anecdote, he recounts his story from the slave owning presidents, many of whom were ambivalent about the practice but unwilling to advocate for any change; through the Jim Crow era when the personal attitudes of the presidents were varied, but their public policies inevitably stagnant; to the post war period, civil rights movement, and modern era, when African Americans are not uncommon in upper level advisory and cabinet positions. Throughout, Walsh illustrates the stories of African Americans working day to day inside the White House and their sometimes fraught, sometimes surprisingly intimate relationships with first family. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)