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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DAME !, April 22, 2008
This review is from: Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)
As fascinating as a today tell-all Ladies of Liberty is full of vignettes and episodes that reveal the strength, courage and perseverance of America's early heroines. Not only are there personal revelations regarding many of these women but also reminders of how a young country struggled to grow.
Sometimes with only a few pages acclaimed journalist/commentator Cokie Roberts captures the essence of the women who played such an important role in our history. Among those included are Abigail Adams, Martha Jefferson, Dolley Madison, Martha Washington, Theodosia Burr, and Sacajawea.
Strength was the hallmark of many in this sisterhood as we are reminded that for five years Boston born Abigail Adams was separated from her husband, John, while he attended to matters in France, Holland and England. As always during that period he relied upon her to be his faithful reporter of doings at home. Not only that but it was also her task to support their family by tending to their farm, selling whatever John sent from abroad, raise their young children, and care for ailing relatives.
Of that period in his mother's life John Quincy Adams later wrote, "My mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages."
It is quotations such as the above taken from journals, diaries, and personal letters that make the stories of these women so vivid as they fulfilled both their personal and public roles.
Reading the words of Cokie Roberts is very much like listening to her - she is a marvelous storyteller, casting a spell with her words and drawing us in. Ladies Of Liberty is a remarkable work and a valuable contribution to the annals of our history.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
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66 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Founding Fathers' "Significant Others", April 12, 2008
This review is from: Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)
I enjoyed Cokie Roberts' earlier book, Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, and on the basis of that, I gave LADIES OF LIBERTY a spin.
While I know a little bit about US history, Roberts' new book contains material that is a revelation. The letters of former First Ladies and other women who were on the scene at the founding of our nation provides the primary source material. Their takes from yesteryear on topics as diverse as infant mortality, foreign policy, and hats (!) gives a new and much-needed perspective on life and culture in early America.
While women are obviously and profoundly influential on historical events in America, Roberts had to closely study their correspondences to learn how. (In other words, "traditional" histories aren't necessarily helpful in this regard.) While perusing the letters of an age gone by, the author shows her eye for the telling (and juicy) anecdote, and she does an excellent and witty job of putting these words from yesteryear into context for the contemporary reader.
As what I've written so far reads like well-meaning blather, the best way to share my thoughts is this way:
Highly recommended!
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Untold stories, April 20, 2008
This review is from: Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)
This is not infotainment. This is a page-turner merely because the subject matter just gets overlooked in the conventional accounts of history.
And I'm being honest when I state that I had formerly assumed that American women's history did not significantly occur till Seneca Falls. Roberts's second well-researched volume continues documenting that history was occurring well before that landmark New York conference.
I think that our school history classes and even the structure of our very sociery would today be much different if everybody fully knew and was appreciating the role which women had in shaping this nation. White women predominate in the volume, but also included is Sacajawea. She is the indian often mythologized for helping Lewis and Clark explore what ultimately became the western United States.
And what else stands out for me is that these women aired their policy opinions in an era when they allegedly supposed to be sequestered away at home. These women then obviously had other ideas for themselves--and the nation! Such is a powerful lesson about cultural expectations and the-oft more nuanced reality.
As the daughter of former 'Congresswoman' Lindy Boggs, Roberts certainly has had her own familial experiences navigating this terrain. I do not doubt it nurtured her interest in unearthing the stories which would otherwise never get told. Reflections on the historical evolution of women's status also move this book beyond a mere collection of biographical profiles.
I'd recommend this book for anybody interested in American history and those curious about women's experiences and perspectives.
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