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Title: First Ladies: The Saga of the President's Wives and Their Power, 1789-1961 by Carl Sferrazza Anthony ISBN: 0-688-11272-2 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Well researched and interesting
Comment: This is an extrmeley interesting, well-researched look at American politics and society through the history of America's first ladies. The author does an excellent job of having the women he chronicles truly become individuals, sometimes very different from their husbands. He finds ways to bring the early life of future first ladies into his narrative, and he provides clues to the roots of some American icons that I certainly didn't know about--like the reason for the name of the Baby Ruth candy bar, named after Frances and Grover Cleveland's first daughter.
This is not a book that reads quickly. It is comprehensive and careful, and is meant to be savored as a work of history. I'm looking forward to reading the second volume of this.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent--A Good Read and Good History
Comment: This is an excellent, well-researched book. The author paints a dense, richly detailed portrait of each first lady and the social and political background of her time. I learned a lot--not just about the historical women, but about American cultural and social development. This is not a fast book to read, but it is a book to savor and learn from. It is also truly history--no attempt to sensationalize issues--and I appreciated that.
Rating: 4
Summary: Incomparably Thorough -- A Masterwork
Comment: Anthony's treatise has several outstanding merits, not the least of which is its impressive scope. No other First Ladies scholar (known to the general public) has succeeded in furnishing so rich and abundant a collection of anecdotes and insights on the topic of the Presidents' wives, many of whom -- such as Rachel Jackson and Jane Appleton Pierce -- would have descended into utter obscurity. Anthony gives short shrift to no one [First Lady] and that is a rare, fair feature -- much to be commended!
Over the years, authors / publishers of of First Ladies anthologies have shortchanged readers. All-inclusive Anthony must be credited with tastefully -- rather than sensationally -- putting forth the lesser known faces and facts, and despite his tendency to digress, presenting all sides of the picture.
In each First Lady installment, the author's massive (and occasionally frustrating) tendency is to weave, albeit expertly, in and out of character, like one making a tapestry, ending ultimately where he started; naturally, that is scant consolation for the researcher with little or no time to waste. Said another way, whereas the the stated focus (if we go by chapter index) is a particular First Lady, the pattern is to be discursive within that chapter by taking divers detours into the lives of prior or subsequent First Ladies. For instance, what does a lengthy paragraph on the youthful Rosalyn Carter have to do with a chapter supposedly on Bess the Boss (Truman)? Why does Anthony ramble on about deployment of the Atomic Bomb if the topic was Edith Wilson's admiration of Bess's ladylike restraint? When dialogue segues into other First Ladies' opinions of the decision to drop the bomb (all because Bess allegedly influenced Harry in this regard), better, one thinks, if Anthony had not been so tempted to veer off course. The result is that decades seemingly overlap! But for all its overlapping, Anthony's style (storybook format) is plainly mesmerizing, utterly enticing despite the researcher's initial frustration. His motive, we would wager, is to convey a perpetual sense of the present by giving readers concurrent glimpses into a whole handful of highly personal lives -- in short, to pinpoint the whereabouts of any to-be or former First Lady whilst the other other actually occupied her station; hence, an aging Edith Wilson on the subject of the A Bomb. Ah, yes -- a second source of frustration for the researcher: the photos Anthony incorporates bear no -- at the very least, visible or readily accessible -- captions. But in this case, the eager researcher need not be the only serious reader. Furthermore, that we should care so much to read a caption hints at the caliber of these First Lady photos, so historically rare and captivating, even in the absence of certain identifying features.
This first in a two-volume series on our nation's First Ladies is by far no cut and paste job (rather, a masterwork) for all its artful sculpturing, magnificent and painstaking authenticity. It is not simply the historian's job to neatly or conventionally classify, but to spark in his readers a genuine enthusiasm for his own beloved subject matter, and this is doubtless what Anthony achieves.
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Title: America's First Families: An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House (Lisa Drew Books (Paperback)) by Carl Sferrazza Anthony ISBN: 0684864428 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 02 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: First Ladies by Margaret Truman ISBN: 044922323X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families by Doug Wead ISBN: 0743446313 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Presidential Wives by Paul F. Boller, Paul Boller ISBN: 0195121422 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonnie Angelo ISBN: 0060937114 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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