Best Book for Jumpstarting an Interest in Rev.War.Era Women

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	• Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation Cokie Roberts Harper Perennial, 2005 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 66 reviews view larger image
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An Engaging Collection of First-Person Views

What a wonderful way to learn about the men and women who shaped our country! Cokie Roberts does a great job of letting the characters speak for themselves. She also does her best to present the various players in an organized fashion. In spite of her efforts, though, Founding Mothers sometimes reads like a Russian novel, with all the various names and interwoven relationships. It also seems to run on at times, until you think about everything the author probably could have included but didn't.

For those of us who aren't history buffs, I wish Roberts had included a timeline. It might also have been helpful to have a chart showing the major characters' ages at different events in history. But even without these aids, Founding Mothers still offers readers an engaging collection of first-person views into this period in American (and French and English) history.

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History Comes Alive ...

This is a very fascinating book and I am glad that I was able to buy it not too long ago. I remember reading the back of the book at the bookstore and thinking, "I have to have it." That first thought hasn't changed.

This book is written about women who influenced the leaders of the Revolutionary War, the first Continental Congress, the first Congress, first states and so on. These are women who have managed to keep the homefires burning, raising children and oftentimes, burying children, finding ways to keep their heads above financial debt while their husbands were away at war or at debates. These are women who have given up homes and friends to be with their husbands overseas on diplomatic missions ~~ women who published their thoughts and urged other patriots to fight in the war. These are not shy wall-flowers that other historical tomes would have you believe. These women really did back their influential husbands because they are strong women themselves.

This book covers the pre-War era, the Revolution, and the beginnings of a new country where it took men two years on how to decide to rule this brand-new country. This book was based on other biographies, letters exchanged among the women and among their husbands, and other historical tidbits that definitely made this book interesting. I know there are reviewers here who did not like Roberts' little asides and comments nor did they like her style of writing. I found it utterly fascinating and wanted to read more. It was disjointed in some places as she would wander off track for a little bit ~~ but I never had any trouble following her train of thought. It was just fascinating.

This book is a must-read for every true history reader. Not only did it contain political thoughts that these women have written or talked about ~~ it also contained customs of the times (which in some cases really haven't changed much over the years), personal thoughts of people who were actually there in the midst of the fighting and it definitely showed the Founding Fathers ~~ not as perfect men, but as human and oftentimes flawed. They become more real because Roberts took the time to make them more human and more interesting.

This book is definitely one of the top 10 for my 2006 booklist. I finished it in time to really enjoy the Fourth of July as now I understand these people a little bit better and can appreciate their fight more.

7-3-06

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Five Stars

A wonderful book about extraordinary real women who deserve their own spot along side the Founding Fathers. The bravery and the guts of these women surprised me. Each one was heroic in her own way and has made me want to learn more about each one.

Founding Mothers

Written in contemporary prose with plenty of opinions thrown in to spice things up, this is an eye-opener of a book with lots of discoveries to be made about Abigail Adams, Martha Washinton, Mercy Warren and their contemporaries. Did you know Eli Whitney might have stolen the idea of the cotton gin from Kitty Greene, according to no less an authority than MIT? Did you know slave Elizabeth Freeman pretty much single-handedly forced Massachusets to end slavery? What's really amazing about this book is how obvious it is that while the men may have been in revolt against the British, the women were in revolt against their condition. I don't think the men had any idea that all this revolutionary dealing would start the women down the road to Seneca Falls in 1848 and the 19th Amendment in 1920.

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Best Book for Jumpstarting an Interest in Rev.War.Era Women

I just finished reading this book which was recently purchased by me at Mt. Vernon and my opinion is that it is a GOOD book! I could not dissagree more with the minority of reviewers that found fault in the author's writing style! I have read many bio's of Revolutionary-era men but never even considered reading about the ladies! This book changed all that. I loved it. I underlined so many things in this book and now I have begun reading bios of the ladies of that period beginning with Martha Washington by Helen Bryan (also sold at Mt. Vernon) which is just as fascinating as any bio of one of the "fathers". So, this book is an inspiration! Thank-you Cokie for opening up a whole new subject for me to read countless enjoyable pages about and which I can in turn pass on to and inspire my 10-yr-old daughter with.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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