While Joe Biden is about to make his debut at the White House, cartoonist Hervé Bourrhis had fun portraying the 45 presidents the previous one through anecdotes, historical facts and other little stories of corridors in a book called ” The White House “.
More than a simple comic, it is a complete and very detailed retrospective in the form of portraits of each of the tenants of the Oval Office. The author represented them in the form of black and white sketches by adding the biographical elements of each one but also newspaper articles on the successes, the failures and the events during their mandate. The author also sketches all the little faults of these illustrious rulers, thus reinforcing their caricature. This book is teeming with a multitude of crisp little stories like that of President John Quincy Adams who used to bathe naked in the Potomac, until one day a journalist to whom he had refused an interview stole his clothes! We also discover the moving story of William Henry Harrison, who during his inauguration speech contracted pleurisy, the cause of his death a month later! The most hated of all was without a doubt Warren Harding, 29e president, corrupt, alcoholic who spent his nights playing poker. The reader also learns that Lincoln, a fervent defender of the emancipation of blacks, was in fact hiding the desire to send them all elsewhere… to Liberia.
More than a simple book, “The White House” is a real little encyclopedia, filled with anecdotes, small sentences, which is addressed to everyone and especially erases all the clichés concerning these statesmen. Through these two-page tables, Hervé Bourrhis humorously teaches us about those who shaped America and teaches us what the “United States” is. The reader wanders from page to page, gleaning all the most loquacious journalistic details and thus documents himself according to his desire. A very nice Christmas present for your loved ones.
La Maison Blanche, by Hervé Bourrhis, Casterman edition, 160 pages.
