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With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and, often, partners in fame.
Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as the founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and the public, often beset by a media just as gossip-seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced at that time, which makes it all the more remarkable that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.
JFK had Marilyn Monroe, and Bill Clinton had Monica, but that doesn't mean 20th-century presidents had all the fun. "Knowing and understanding the women in their lives adds pathos and depth to the public dimensions of the founding fathers' political journeys," Thomas Fleming writes in this well-researched peek into the boudoirs of America's political architects.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $118.00 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Cindy Sundberg
reviewed The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers on December 28, 2010
The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers
Rating clarification: 4.5 stars
This book marked a very satisfactory conclusion of my 2010 reading challenge, and will certainly have a permanent spot on my bookshelf. Thomas Fleming's foray into the lives of America's six founding fathers and the various female influences on their lives might have, in a different writer's hands, been trite, repetitive or uninspiring. Not the case here, and if you are a casual to moderate fan of this genre of non-fiction American history, I seriously urge you to pick this book up. You will not be disappointed.
Fleming provides an engrossing and fascinating glimpse into the pre-and-post-Revolutionary war world of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. More to the point, Fleming focuses on the women who played a central role in each of their lives, be it their mother, wife, and/or daughter. Although I knew many things about them as a whole, I definitely learned some interesting tid-bits about each woman that I didn't previously, and can say that in the case of Elizabeth Hamilton and Dolley Madison, I gained a much, much greater respect for them.
(This book also re-inforces a long held personal belief of mine that Thomas Jefferson is still a putz, John Adams remains a drama queen of the highest order, and Martha Jefferson would have greatly benefited by copious amounts of valium...but I digress.)
Simply un-put-down-able. Would make a great companion book for Jospeh Ellis' Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
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