Here is
America's First Ladies by Christine SadlerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was written while JFK was president. It gives a brief biography of each First Lady up until then.
The writing style is dated, but in a good way. By that I mean that Sadler, while being honest about the flaws or criticism aimed at the different President's wives, she avoided the salacious gossipy tactic that seems to be popular today. She did not feel obligated to dig up dirt.
Overall, her presentation was a positive outlook on each wife with a focus on her accomplishments while she was First Lady. Prior to Eleanor Roosevelt, it seemed the primary function of the president's wives were to serve as hostess and entertain at the White House. We read a lot about each woman's taste in clothes and home decor. The White House got several renovations and re-decorations over the years.
Even though Eleanor Roosevelt started a new tradition of First Lady's being involved in the sociological conditions of the world, other First Ladies prior to her helped their husbands behind the scenes. Some wives were as politically adept as their husbands, and in some cases more so.
Each woman is presented as strong and unique in her own right in contributing to her husband's term(s) of office. I think Sadler also contributed in bringing attention to some of the lesser known wives.
She finishes with Jackie, which is bittersweet because this is written before her husband's assassination or the tragedies concerning the other Kennedy's.
All in all, an interesting book, although it ends abruptly with the death of Jackie's last baby.
It's valuable to read biographies from earlier eras because they provide another source of information where agenda's weren't quite so blatant.
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13 comments:
I have an old book somewhere that handles Presidential biographies in a similar way. I think that it went up to Reagan.
A book like this about First Ladies is a good idea. An updated one would be nice, but I agree that it should avoid this horrible gossip and scandal mongering.
i like what you say about older bios... i just heard the Beethoven yesterday on the radio and wasn't sure who wrote it: "lo how the mighty have fallen"... this appears to be pretty interesting, bookwise... now if the @$#%^& library would just reopen...
actually it wasn't Beethoven now that i think about it; it was some trio sonata the vagaries of senility...
HI Brian!
I definitely appreciated the author showing the strengths and contributions of each first lady. It gave me an increased appreciation of both them and their husbands.
Hi mudpuddle,
I feel your frustration over the library. I have a bagful of read books I need to return and I also have used up my quota of e books for the month. Not only that, now that we live in a new town, there is a lovely library here that I cannot wait to re open so I can check their books out.
Hi again mudpuddle. I have often wondered if I suffered from dementia if it would other me as much as others. Would I even know what was going on? Maybe I'd be blissfully content.
I’ve been put off a few more recent books for the same reason, Sharon. I don’t know much about American politics generally, let alone First Ladies although I have read the occasional story about Jackie Onassis & her life sounds interesting.
I just saved that cello piece to show my daughter to tomorrow. She’s working on a piece called Kol Nidrei & Brahms Sonata in E minor.
I just read that Josh lived in Antarctica & wondered what he did there?
Hi Carol. It seems there's such a preponderance with the sex lives of famous people. Especially if they were homosexual. It distracts from the actual person and their accomplishments. I guess it guarantees to sell books, though.
As for Josh, he had just gotten out of the Air Force and submitted his resume to a government website. He was then contacted by a Swedish company to come work for them in Antarctica.
He did there the same thing he did in the Air Force, which was maintain Doplar Radar. It took him all over the continent to the various towers to keep them working. Quite an adventure.
Some authors focus on that and see a s*xual side to everything, even if it was written ages ago.
Yes, definitely an adventure but the weather in Antarctica doesn’t attract me at all. 🥶
Hi Carol
Josh has corrected me. He worked on weather stations and microwave landings. Doplar Radar was when he was in the Air Force.
One funny story about Josh: when he was preparing to move to Antarctica, he and his sister mapped out the stars in the Southern Hemisphere, since this was going to be a rare opportunity (for North Americans, not Australians) to see it.
Unfortunately, he was there at a time when the sun never set. All it did was travel around the horizon, just a little dip and then on around. He never did get to see the Southern Stars.
On the plus, we have a lot of cool footage of him with penguins and seals.
Wow, what a cool experience! (No pun intended.) Antarctica is on my bucket list for travel.
This sounds like a great book. I'm embarrassingly ignorant of First Ladies, even some of the presidents I barely know. I totally agree about older biographies being more serious, less tabloid. I'm all for new information, but there's no need to get speculative or vulgar. (Incidentally, my all-time favorite biography, A Prince of Our Disorder (T. E. Lawrence), was written in the 70s.)
As for the cover...at first I literally thought it was an artsy design to give it a "layered" look. :D I didn't know birds could do so much damage!
Hi Marion!
I have one biography of Lawrence, I haven't read it yet. I don't think it's by that author, though.
Yes, my birds are quite the little artists. Especially the lovebirds, they cut precise strips as though they were using scissors.
You could go to Antarctica. Now's a good time since you are young and (I presume) single. Josh told me that electrical engineers and PhD's were down there working in the kitchens as dishwashers or chauffeuring cars. They just wanted the experience of living down there. You do have to commit to a season however. I think the summer season, which is January to May. You have to take a pscyh exam in order to live in the winter season- I suppose since you're not going to see the sun for six months.
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