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Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History
 
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Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Kati Marton (Author), Jane Alexander (Reader)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 18, 2001
Read by
3 cassettes/approx. 5 hours

A hugely appealing audiobook that reveals the ways in which presidential marriages have affected the tone, character, and polices of twelve administrations, from Woodrow and Edith Wilson to George W. and Laura Bush.

Each of the marriages that Kati Marton examines offers up its own unexpected lessons about power and marriage, about the influence of presidential wives, and about the evolution of women's roles in the twentieth century. Based on private White House documents to presidential events, Hidden Power explores how both the personal dynamics and public faces of White House marriages have shaped our history.

We see Edith Wilson literally running the government when her husband becomes ill; the superb and necessary diplomacy of Jacqueline Kennedy; how Patricia Nixon's estrangement from her husband fed his paranoia; the generally constructive role Nancy Reagan played, despite her frivolous reputation; the razor-sharp political instincts behind Barbara Bush's grandmotherly image; how Hilary Clinton saved her husbands presidency.

Here are the stories of the ultimate power couples—each one very different, but all of them informative, lively, and absolutely fascinating.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The saying that behind every powerful man is a powerful woman guides Marton's exploration of presidential marriages, from the Wilsons to George W. and Laura Bush. Sometimes Marton points out the obvious: most presidential couples have been middle-aged, and no one got divorced after leaving office. Even in the chapters on individual couples, Marton rehearses themes that will already be familiar to many readers: after Woodrow Wilson had a stroke, his wife Edith ran the country as a sort of deputy president (Marton doesn't bring to this story the kind of originality that Phyllis Lee Levin's does in Edith and Woodrow (Forecasts, Aug. 6) ; Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt labored under the shadow of FDR's affair with his secretary, Missy LeHand; Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage was an "unlimited partnership," in which Hillary bailed out her husband time and again. The analytical question that seems to most interest Marton is predictable how do presidential wives balance feminism and tradition? Her answer the balancing act is a tricky one is banal. Surprisingly, the best chapter in which Marton advances an argument that illuminates more than an individual couple is on the Fords. Here, Marton suggests that "the same qualities that made Gerald Ford a good husband" (compassion, the ability to compromise) also made him a mediocre president. Marton has delivered crisply written political gossip those who want buzz will flock to it; those looking for serious history will turn elsewhere. B&w photos. (Sept. 21) Forecast: Despite its light quality, or perhaps because of it, this will be talked about everywhere, aided by a 13-city author tour, appearances on 20/20, Charlie Rose and other national media. Its first printing of 100,000 should sell handsomely.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Not so much an intimate look at 12 presidential marriages from the Wilsons to the Bushes but a study of their political consequences.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Audio Cassette
  • Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (September 18, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0739300008
  • ISBN-13: 978-0739300008
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kati Marton, an award-winning former NPR and ABC News correspondent, is the author of Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History, a New York Times bestseller, as well as Wallenberg, The Polk Conspiracy, A Death in Jerusalem, and a novel, An American Woman. Mother of a son and a daughter, she lives in New York with her husband, Richard Holbrooke.

 

Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible Disappointment, October 4, 2001
By A Customer
I was looking forward to this book when it was first ordered, but it is a real disappointment. There is no analysis or information that is new. It has all been said and said better. The book is filled with errors - historical and even typos. It seems that the author just read alot of books and then created her own opinion without doing any new research. The story of the Nixons is much more complex than is presented here. There's just gossip and some mean stuff. The author claims to be a "presidential scholar" and boy that is some jump in logic. Anyone can read a bunch of books and throw their opinion out. The Eisenhowers are totally ignored and dismissed. The carters are put down as sort of backward hicks. The author seems to just have alot of media connections to get interviews but there is nothing new here. Save you money.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fast and enjoyable, November 14, 2001
By A Customer
I don't think this book is as awful as previously stated. If you take it for what it is - a gossipy, fast reading analysis on presidential marriages - it is enjoyable. The author did make several mistakes on common knowledge information. She never mentioned the fact that Betty Ford was previously married (which most everyone knows) and she stated that upon entering office, Richard Nixon had dinner with his daughters and their husbands. This is incorrect, since Tricia Nixon wasn't married at the time her father became president. She was married in the White House.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Junk read, November 3, 2001
By A Customer
Marton's effort doesn't rate as very good journalism or gossip. No historian, and not much of a pseudo intellectual, Marton offers simply a round up of some Presidential marriages without particularly keen psychological insights other than the fact that either one or other ( in the case of the Clintons, both) partners is hung up on the quest for power, and what that obsession means for the marriage. Marton should know, since she's the former wife of ABC anchor Peter Jennings and currently Richard Holbrook, what it's like to stand subordinate to a bigger presence and the subject of this book - as well as the shallow depth of the analysis and lack of original reporting - certainly (albeit poorly) reflects on her own life experience. Save for the paperback, this is definitely summer beach reading.
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