Betty Ford (Modern First Ladies) [Hardcover]

John Robert Greene (Author)

Book Description

Series: Modern First Ladies | Publication Date: December 2004

First Lady Betty Ford will long be remembered for her active support of the Equal Rights Amendment, her struggles with breast cancer and substance abuse, and her later involvement with the addiction treatment center that bears her name. But perhaps more than these, Betty Ford will stand as a paragon of candor and courage, an outspoken woman whose public positions did not always conform with those of her husband.

An independent, free spirit who regularly ranks among the most-admired First Ladies, Betty Ford is considered by many to be the most outspoken since Eleanor Roosevelt: she spoke her mind publicly and frequently, sometimes sending the president's political advisors running for cover. This is the first book to address the successes and failures of her advocacy, the effect of her candor, and the overall impact of her brief tenure as First Lady.

John Robert Greene traces Betty Ford's problems and triumphs from her childhood through her husband's entire political career, including his controversial presidency, which thrust her into an unrelenting media spotlight. He then tells how she confronted her personal demons and became a symbol of courage for women throughout the nation.

Contrasting the sometimes harsh assessments of historians with the respect in which she continues to be held, Greene examines Betty Ford's outspoken opinions on abortion and women's rights and suggests that her views hampered Gerald Ford's ability to forge a coalition within the GOP and may well have been a factor in his presidential defeat. Afterwards, as the author highlights, Betty Ford remained a role model for people suffering from addictions and personal pain, and made seminal contributions in the field of public advocacy for women's health issues and substance abuse. The Betty Ford Center especially stands as a lasting tribute to her foresight and caring.

Greene concludes that, while Gerald Ford wanted to restore an aura of honesty to the presidency, in many ways it was his wife who accomplished this instead. His book, the first to draw upon her papers at the Ford Library, captures her courage and candor and tells why she will always be remembered-for who, not what, she was.

This book is part of the Modern First Ladies series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on papers deposited at the Ford library in addition to memoirs by and about his subject, historian Greene (The Presidency of George Bush) delivers an affirmative account of the life of a popular and controversial First Lady. Despite the reservations of her Michigan mother, Betty Ford (b. 1918) studied with Martha Graham to become a modern dancer, but she gave up this aspiration for family life when in 1948 she married U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford. The Fords had four children whom Betty essentially raised alone; Green believes that her later problem with alcohol (her father was an alcoholic) began to manifest itself during their childhoods. Although her addiction worsened as her husband assumed the vice presidency, she grew emotionally stronger after a bout with breast cancer, breaking the silence about her disease and lobbying for the ERA and a woman's right to choose—and infuriating White House advisers who tried to force her out of the limelight. Green provides a wealth of carefully researched detail about the conflicts between members of her staff that also created tension. Transformed by post-presidential rehab, she founded the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation and continues to speak out for those who have substance abuse problems. Green hasn't dug up anything earth-shattering, but his account is frank enough and thorough.
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From the Back Cover

"Greene's engaging biography gives Betty Ford her rightful place in history-as an outspoken first lady whose public positions did not always conform to her husband's and as a courageous advocate for solutions to breast cancer and substance abuse."--Susan Hartmann, author of From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since 1960

"Betty Ford was like no other First Lady before or since, and John Robert Greene shows why."--Herbert Parmet, author of Presidential Power from the New Deal to the New Right

"A fitting tribute to a free spirit and most indomitable First Lady."--James Cannon, author of Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas (December 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700613544
• ISBN-13: 978-0700613540
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #916,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Robert Greene is the Paul J. Schupf Professor of History and Humanities at Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, NY, where he has taught for the past thirty-two years. He is the director of the Social Science program, and serves as the College Archivist.

Dr. Greene's teaching and writing specialty lies in American Political History, particularly the American presidency. He has written or edited seventeen books. His latest book--entitled America in the Sixties and released in October 2010--is rich in both anecdotes, stories, and thoughtful analysis, as it utilizes the author's three decades of teaching and publishing on that fascinating and volatile period.

Greene's other books include one on the election of Dwight Eisenhower, one on the Nixon presidency, three on the Ford presidency, and a critically acclaimed book on The Presidency of George Bush. This book, based on over one hundred interviews--including one with former President Bush--was recently praised in the leading journal in the field as "the best book to date on the Bush administration." His biography of Betty Ford--the first biography published of that first lady, has also earned for him strong reviews. Of his four books on the history of higher education, his Generations of Excellence: A History of Cazenovia College continues to raise funds for scholarships at Cazenovia College. His next two book, due out in December 2010, will be an encyclopedia of the George W. Bush administration. Greene is presently working on a study of America in the 1930s.

Both his students and his colleagues have honored Dr. Greene. At Cazenovia College, he was awarded the school's first endowed chair. He has been chosen to speak to the graduating class on several occasions, and in 1993 the faculty voted him the honor of Distinguished Faculty Member.

Dr. Greene is also a regular political commentator on several radio call-in shows around the country, and has recently offered commentary on C-SPAN, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. His most recent foray into the national media was in March 2009, when he was a featured analyst for the PBS special, "Betty Ford: The Real Deal."

Born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., Dr. Greene received his undergraduate degrees from St. Bonaventure University, and his Ph.D. in Modern American History from Syracuse University. In other lives, he was a radio disc jockey, played in a very bad small rock band, and taught the visually handicapped.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A woman ahead of her time, January 8, 2005

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Betty Ford (Modern First Ladies) (Hardcover)

Because the current Republican first lady easily can double as an extra in a "Stepford Wives" film, we must not forget that she is only one, and certainly does not reflect all her predecessors within either the White House institution or the Republican Party. Betty Ford certainly proved that.

John Robert Greene's biography of Betty Ford does justice to a woman who was so clearly ahead of her time, and certainly not afraid to admit it either. Whether people love or hate her, they ultimately admit that Betty Ford has ideas of her own. Greene, a historian, previously authored biographies on George H.W. Bush and (appropriately) Gerald Ford.

After Spiro T. Agnew and Richard Nixon's resignations, Gerald Ford unexpectedly became the nation's president. Although he is relatively liberal by current Republican standards (which was issue of contention in the 1976 Republican primary) Ford was conservative when compared to his own wife.

Even though she was from the World War II era generation---who weren't supposed to support women's liberation, Ford instead championed the Equal Rights Amendment and gave public thanks that abortion was `brought out of the back woods' in interviews which were undoubtedly path-breaking in their own day.

In a time when the new right was preparing for the Reagan and Bush eras, Betty Ford was a true lightning rod. Effectively defusing an idea that only `radicals' or `wide eyed youth' wanted policy AND cultural changes, she helped to successfully infuse women's rights with a public `respectability' that several other public female supporters were not able to achieve in 1974-1976. Being First Lady gave Mrs. Ford the ability to draw middle America to the very social movements which they otherwise might have feared.

For instance, after finding a lump in her own breast, Mrs. Ford encouraged other women to talk about breast cancer---and promoted the early detection which is now commonplace in America. Because then prevailing sentiment had been to `keep quiet' and attempt treating cancer in later and ultimately more difficult stages, Mrs. Ford has saved many women's lives. When compared against the Republican Party's subsequent and current `pro-family' ideology which actually attempts hiding frank discussions of human anatomy, her actions truly were `pro-life'.

For all its celebration, the book does pointedly acknowledge that Ford had a substance abuse problem. Again turning personal experience into public enlightenment/growth, Ford lent her name to the Betty Ford treatment center in California. If the center has subsequently become the stuff of pop culture, it also has humanized first ladies; they experience problems AND also have opinions how to end those problems.

Even if she was never actually a co-president and was generally content as First Lady, Betty Ford had ultimately opened the door for successors Rosalyn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton to increase the public role in ways which Eleanor Roosevelt had only dreamt about. This book is recommended for historians and political scientists, particularly those interested in theories about the power and influence of First Ladies on public policy.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unduly Harsh - Belittles Influence of Betty Ford, August 15, 2005

By 

a reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Betty Ford (Modern First Ladies) (Hardcover)

This book made no real effort to consider the alchemy of the Ford marriage - looking at and attempting to analyze the private and personal influence of the First Lady on the President - it simply deals with the face value of public reaction. Thus is severely underrates the influence of Betty Ford. There is a lack of any human depth to this work and in attempting to be dry and objective, entirely loses what was the unique kind of power that First Ladies like Betty Ford can have - different no doubt than those who undertake specific legislative agendas, but one that the public responded to. The wrong author for a great subject.