The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House [Paperback]

John F. Marszalek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

The Eaton Affair was the tabloid story of its time -- and perhaps of all time. Peggy O'Neale Eaton, the brash and unconventional wife of President Andrew Jackson's secretary of war, was branded a "loose woman" and snubbed by Washington society. The president's defense of her honor fueled intense speculation and gossip, and the scandal began.

Before it was over, the entire Cabinet resigned, duels were threatened, assassinations were attempted, and John Calhoun's hopes for the White House were dashed, and Andrew Jackson's first term was nearly a failure. Washington's hostesses were the only bloody victors.

Award-winning author John Marszalek systematically tracks the escalation of events in a story that teems with conspiracy, slander, and paranoia. Reaching deep into the social context of the Jacksonian Age, he shows how even the most powerful politicians ceded to an honor code that could not be broken.

Both a riveting read and a fascinating window into our present-day politics of scandal, The Petticoat Affair is a deft exploration of the mores of another era brought to life by the timeless forces of ambition, conspiracy, and political intrigue.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Marszelak (history, Mississippi State Univ.) has written a scintillating account of the "Eaton Affair," America's first great tabloid tale. Deemd a "loose woman" by the wives of Andrew Jackson's cabinet, Margaret Eaton, the new spouse of Secretary of War John Eaton, was therefore snubbed at all social functions. A seemingly trivial matter, it soon escalated into a major cause celebre with a variety of political repercussions. (The vice president's wife, Floride Calhous, was her most ardent detractor.) The author, whose biography Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order (Free Pr., 1993) has become the standard work on the subject, places the Eaton Affair squarely within the context of Jacksonian democracy. Thoroughly researched and wonderfully written, this book will no doubt become the definitive work on the topic. This is academically informed "popular" history at its very best.?Stephen G. Weismar, Springfield Technical Community Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

From Marszalek (History/Mississippi State Univ.; Sherman, 1992, etc.), a vivid evocation of a dramatic episode that preoccupied and temporarily crippled the Jackson administration. More than 160 years before Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, America's first sex scandal, the Peggy Eaton affair (182931), rocked the White House. Newly elected Andrew Jackson was a controversial figure and no stranger to scandal; he'd killed a man in a duel, wedded another man's wife before her divorce was final, executed two British civilians in an extralegal military action in Florida, and massacred hundreds of Indian women and children in frontier battles. Marszalek shows how Jackson's frequent encounters with scandal had made him proud, rigid, and quick to take offense. His wife Rachel's death soon after the 1828 election, thought to have been brought about by the vicious attacks on her character, filled the grief-stricken Jackson with righteous anger, and when Washington gossips snubbed the vivacious young Peggy Eaton, wife of Jackson's secretary of war, Jackson vigorously sprang to her defense. Peggy, the widow of a navy purser who allegedly consorted with John Eaton while her husband was at sea and married him before the requisite mourning period expired, was thought to have low morals, although Marszalek argues that her real offenses were her low social origins and her unfeminine, ``forward'' behavior with men. What began as an act of social ostracism ultimately polarized the Jackson cabinet, resulted in a fatal estrangement between the president and vice president (Calhoun's wife led the ostracism of Peggy), and caused the resignation and reorganization of Jackson's cabinet, leaving the presidential aspirations of Calhoun a shambles and positioning Martin Van Buren to succeed Jackson. Marszalek's absorbing narrative illuminates how much, and how little, Washington and American society have changed: The small- mindedness and sexism of Washington's matrons, and the punctilious protectiveness of the president, would be inconceivable today, but the vicious nature of political rumormongering and scandal in Washington remains. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; Louisiana Paperback edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807126349
• ISBN-13: 978-0807126349
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Social History, October 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House (Hardcover)

This book is well-written and difficult to put down. The author did his research well. It is a good explanation of the Margaret Eaton Affair and of the social mores that women were expected to live by in the 1820s and 1830s. It is also a classic example of the theory that "men get their identity by what they do; women, by their family." Margaret Eaton could not escape that she was the daughter of a "tavern-keeper" and many of the slanders against her were merely based on the prejudices of the time concerning the stereotypical behavior of the daughters of tavern-keepers.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine treatment of an old scandal, May 26, 1998

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House (Hardcover)

This book is first a description of a political scandal in the 1820s and 1830s in which a President threw his administration into turmoil over a woman. Secondly, there is a fine treatment of the role women were expected to play in the 1800s and the reasons Margaret Eaton and Rachel

Jackson did not fit in. It's a fine well written

story, very worthwhile.

5.0 out of 5 stars Petticoat, March 21, 2011

By 

JimmyDS - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House (Hardcover)

The book was in excellent condition. I was very satisfied. Dr. Marszalek was one of my history professors at MS State & I enjoyed reading his take on the Eaton Affair.