Good, thought provoking narrative, perhaps a bit forced in spots

books:


	• Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation Cokie Roberts Harper Perennial, 2005 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 68 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Fascinating Book

As Cokie Roberts says, we hardly ever hear about the women of the American Revolution. She not only tells us about their lives, but in doing so we hear about how they worked to create our nation along in partnership with the "founding fathers" -- and we see how it so obviously would have been impossible for the men to do it on their own.

Other books barely scratch the surface of these the history of these women; she gives us a full picture of their amazing lives. It is clear from her book that the "founding mothers" -- and sisters and daughters -- were indeed esteemed during that period of history in America.

Cokie Roberts has done amazing research to revive the history that has been lost over time.

I especially loved hearing the author read it and highly recommend the unabridged audio CD.

for more information click here

My review of the book

I bought this book because I recently donated Civil War letters written by my great great grandmother from Ripley, MS between 1862-1865. I was told this book was written in much the same style as my letters. I am finding it very interesting that some of our very famous leaders did so little to have a "home life" but left it all up to the women.

for more information click here

Good, thought provoking narrative, perhaps a bit forced in spots

In general, I've found Cokie Roberts' book, "Founding Mothers" to be an interesting if not fascinating work: she has done an excellent job of digging into the frequently ignored role of women in the development of the American Republic during the revolutionary era; and has presented her findings in an easy to read and thought provoking narrative, structured as a series of mini-biographies of each of her subjects - most (but not all) of whom were prominent in the society of the time: women like Martha Washington, wife of George Washington; Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams; Peggy Shippen, wife of the traitor Benedict Arnold; and Kitty Green, wife of General Nathaniel Greene.

Building mainly upon the correspondence each of her subjects exchanged with their husbands, families and friends, you get a real sense of what life was like at the time: the challenges these people faced as war ravaged their homes, and the homes of those they loved; how frustrated they were with the complete lack of consideration that the political system and society of the time had for women; their hopes that this new country would turn a new page and allow women a voice in the political arena; and how they sought to influence the men they knew and loved, most of whom had major roles in the revolutionary effort.

While I find this book to be a very informative and interesting read, I get the impression from time to time that Ms. Roberts is stretching a bit to present the points she wishes to make. Some of the evidence she presents is a bit thin, and the arguments she makes based on that evidence sometimes goes beyond what I feel is reasonable. On the other hand, as Ms. Roberts herself says: women and their contrbutions to the cause simply were not valued, and so often were not preserved at all, or are very hard to track-down. So, I cannot fault her on this point, and feel that even when individual statements might go beyond the evidence, the central themes of the book are definitely clear, and compelling.

These women were strong, intelligent, creative, interesting people. Cokie Roberts does a great job of helping us learn who they were, what their lives were like, and how contributed to the building of the American Dream. Great book!

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Longwood High School AP US History Books
very good reads-fiction and non-fiction
Books every girl should read!
Some of My Favorite Things
The American Revolution

search for books
the women who, founding, mothers, nation, our, raised, who, women

Impressum / about us