Pete Souza was on the right side of the picture, and as the photographs in this book demonstrate, he made the most of his special vantage point, recording some of the most intimate, honest, and humanizing scenes of the presidency I've ever seen.

Many of the moments I witnessed were extraordinary for their historical impact: Reagan consoling families whose loved ones were killed in the U.S. Marines Beirut barracks bombing attack in 1983,agonizing over the Iran-Contra debacle in late 1986 and early 1987,grimacing while watching a rerun of the space shuttle Challenger's explosion in January 1986, and storming out of a summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in October of that same year....

Other scenes during my White House tenure were extraordinary for their sheer normalcy, except that they happened to include the president of the United States.Those included feeding the squirrels on the White House colonnade, putting a golf ball aboard Air Force One, and tossing a paper airplane off the balcony of a hotel I am glad that fate and good luck put me inside Ronald Reagan's White House.

Foreword by Howard Baker

Introduction

At Work

Air Force One

Gorbachev

At the Ranch

The World in Black & White

On the Road

The Lighter Side

Crisis & Tragedy

Ceremony

The Final Day