A book of political and social history, architecture, design and fashion, this will draw even the casual page-turner into its story. A Kentucky enthusiast will be enthralled for hours.
~Chevy Chaser
Kentucky Historian Laureate Dr. Thomas D. Clark adds another book to his long and distinguished list of publications about the history, politics, land, and life of Kentucky and the South.
~Appalachian Quarterly
This almost-300-page coffee-table book with as many photographs, some quite rare, offers glimpses inside the two official residences where Kentucky's chief executives have resided and often worked.
~Bowling Green Daily News
What a perfect combination—Thomas Clark, the state's foremost historian, bringing in all his wit and wisdom about Kentucky's governors mansions and the colorful people who lived in them, joining with Margaret Lane and her behind-the-scenes knowledge.
~James Klotter, State Historian of Kentucky
In addition to giving a history of the homes, Clark and Lane also illuminate the personal lives of those who have inhabited the mansions, describing the marriages, births, and deaths that took place within their walls as well as everyday life.
~Kentucky Monthly
This handsome reference includes such lively anecdotes that a reader can't help but respond with pleasure to the wealth of information communicated with dry wit and elegant, descriptive prose.... An essential text for readers who crave well-written histories about Kentucky's rich heritage.
~Lexington Herald-Leader
It is Clark and Lane's beneficent handiwork that makes this handsome volume so special, so worth having.
~Louisville Courier-Journal
Clark has succeeded in what he undertook to do: he has given us a lively, readable account of the two historic structures that have housed most of Kentucky's governors—the good, the bad, and the indifferent.
~Lowell H. Harrison, Western Kentucky University
A beautiful book.
~Mayesville Ledger-Independent
A book to keep, a book to read, a book to give to others. You'll need several copies.
~Maysville Independent
Beautifully illustrated with lovely photographs, both black and white and color.... The narrative is a fascinating summary of Kentucky history through the lives of the governors in the mansions.
~Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Offers a unique glimpse inside the buildings that have been used by the state's leaders for two centuries.
~Tennessee Courier
Dr. Clark has composed a colorful gallery of Kentucky's governors, the dedicated, but sometimes quirky and unpredictable men and one woman who have occupied the state's highest elective office. Moreover, he visits them in the usually ramshackle and often dangerous Frankfort mansion where they lived. The result is a serious and delightful page—turner that tells the funny, sad, dramatic, inspiring stories of how the governors and their families managed to survive the perils of living in the mansion—and how the state and its people managed to survive the governors.
~Wade Hall, Bellarmine University