First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women

by Susan Swain, C-SPAN

A look inside the personal life of every first lady in American history, based on original interviews with major historians

C-SPAN's yearlong history series, First Influence and Image , featured interviews with more than fifty preeminent historians and biographers. In this informative book, these experts paint intimate portraits of all forty-five first ladies -- their lives, ambitions, and unique partnerships with their presidential spouses. Susan Swain and the C-SPAN team elicit the details that made these women who they how Martha Washington intentionally set the standards followed by first ladies for the next century; how Edith Wilson was complicit in the cover-up when President Wilson became incapacitated after a stroke; and how Mamie Eisenhower used the new medium of television to reinforce her, and her husband's, positive public images.

This book provides an up-close historical look at these fascinating women who survived the scrutiny of the White House, sometimes at great personal cost, while supporting their families and famous husbands -- and sometimes changing history. Complete with illustrations and essential biographical details, it is an illuminating, entertaining, and ultimately inspiring read.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, Presidents, American History, Womens

496 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2015

About the author

Susan is the co-CEO of C-SPAN, the public affairs cable TV network offering unfiltered coverage of Washington. For more than 30 years, she has also been one of C-SPAN's principle on-air hosts, interviewing public officials, historians, and political journalists. Working together with C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb and Public Affairs books, Susan has helped publish 10 books of collected interviews, including 2019's "The Presidents," and "First Ladies" in 2015.

Reviews

[Fred Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read if you want a book about history, but prefer to read it as a conversation between historians, rather than as a narrative or as a recitation of facts. This is the wrong book for you if you are looking for hard facts about the first ladies. Anything you get from this source should be verified.

[Marlena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biggest take away from this book: Most of the first ladies were even more impressive than their husbands and contributed a great deal to our country's history and trajectory. That being said, this book is just a primer for all the first ladies. Truly, not much information can be given about each first lady in such a short amount of space. However, I am ok with that and have since resolved to read more about the lives of many of the first ladies from autobiographies and biographies of them. There are many fascinating facts and many surprising ones too. This book is a bit difficult to get through and sometimes boring in the way that the first ladies are presented- through historians who seem to be speaking verbally to the reader. This style sometimes makes it difficult to read.

[Sylvia Feicht · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good condensation from the C-SPAN series on the first ladies.

[brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long read, too bad we Don't see the Trump crazy

Book was published a bit ago so again, the US is completely at war with a president who breaks congressional laws, is a felon, hates people of color, but has an immigrant as his 3rd wife. His wife would not even have much to add to this book as she is an unknown to America.
It is sad Biden's wife also never made it it to this book. She was a classy, strong woman who had broad shoulders. We could all learn from the Bidens.
I think this book makes people realize our country has never been happy with anything. That alone is a sad realization.

[Angela Hedworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it took me forever to read this, I really enjoyed the short style of a couple of pages about each first lady and to see how the role has evolved some but in other ways has stayed the same. It is interesting how all of the woman are able to take it and make it their own but some do it rather begrudgingly while others seem born to do the role and really embrace it.

[Jour.Joyeux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the conversational format of this book and the walk through U.S. history via each of the First Ladies.

[Teri Reck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally defeated my reading aversion during these hard, weary times, and I actually finished another book! I took this book slowly, as is easy to do, so that I could digest each first lady, each administration. These women all were remarkable, all overcame enormous challenges, all made their mark in some way--some with great passion and fierce support and others with quiet reserve and personal example--but by golly, they had an impact on this country and the world beyond. Sometimes that impact was made through their influence on their presidential husbands, and sometimes that impact was made despite their husbands administrations or the party politics that sway them. These women exemplify the incredible diversity of women, in thought, in philosophy, in belief, in background, and in so doing, represent all women of America. Much like these First Ladies, we women in America can think and believe and act and work in any way that we want--as mothers, as wives, as workers, in the home , on the farm, in any and all careers. We make our way and our mark as WE choose as individuals, and it doesn't have to fit anyone else's preconceived notions. An excellent read on forces in our political history that have long been overlooked.

P.S. This book ends with Michelle Obama. I do hope that Melania Trump and Jill Biden will be treated with the same respect as these other remarkable women.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, which is a compilation of excerpts from a CSPAN series on the first ladies. This was very informative and entertaining at the same time.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick overview of the first ladies of the land from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. I always enjoy reading about the ladies behind the presidency!

[jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a reference but good short biographies.

[Len Knighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read from what I might call the C-Span Series. The texts are taken from interviews and conversations produced and broadcast on C-Span. They were edited by Susan Swain, who was likely the interviewer on these broadcasts. She recently retired, having last served the network as CEO.
This is a very informative book, especially concerning the First Ladies prior to Eleanor Roosevelt. (Modern technology and media give us much more information and coverage of their activities than would have been possible before.) It should be noted that this book was compiled during the second Obama term so does not include Melania Trump or Jill Biden.
I believe that this book is an example of oral history. As many of us know, we do not speak as we write and vice versa, thus this book is not a polished account of the lives of the First Ladies and their husbands.
As is the case in C-Span's book on the Presidents, this book is more readable than is C-Span's book on Abraham Lincoln. The format is the same on all three: historians share their research and writings on the subject, either through interview on programs such as Q&A or BOOKNOTES, or in conversation with other historians, with the edited transcripts of those programs put into book form. As I mentioned in my Goodreads reviews of the aforementioned books, some of the material was repeated more than once. This was especially true in the Lincoln book where one subject was discussed by many writers, it was not so much the case with the books on the Presidents and First Ladies.
It is only natural that readers and historians would compare the First Ladies as they do their husbands. However, unlike the book on the Presidents, the First Ladies are not numerically ranked, which I believe is wise. What we learn is that there were some rather extraordinary women who served as hostess or First Lady. One example worth mentioning is Harriet Lane. If you are straining your brain to remember a President Lane, you can relax. Harriet Lane was the niece and official White House hostess for President James Buchanan, the only bachelor President. I mention her because she is very highly regarded by the historians featured in her chapter, in contrast to her uncle who is often ranked as the worst President in U.S. history. By the way, Harriet Lane was the first First Lady to live into the 20th Century, dying in 1903.
Speaking of the 20th Century, another little-known First Lady who deserves more than just a snippet of attention is Lou Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover. A concluding statement on her legacy says,
"If she had not been succeeded by a woman who served in the position for thirteen years, Eleanor Roosevelt, we would remember a lot more of Lou Hoover now."
This book is not an exhaustive source of information on the First Ladies but it is a resource that all who are interested in Presidential history would benefit from.

Three stars waxing

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that I will treasure. First Ladies are powerhouse human beings who each brought their personal touch to the White House. They could be educated, control family finances, pull great influence (often privately) with their husbands, a lot felt personal grief and moved the world in a positive way. This book is written from the script of a docu-series and each lady is covered by a two way conversation. For about about six pages. You really see their personalities. Here are a few of my favorite stories:

1. Elizabeth Monroe helped free Lafayette’s wife from a French prison after they killed his mother for not supporting the Revolution…he was hiding in Austria
2. Helen Taft brought the cherry trees to Washington DC
3. Calvin Coolidge raised money for a presidential library and then gave it to his wife to build a school for the deaf (she taught the deaf prior to marriage)
4. Lou Hoover might be the first woman in the US to receive a degree in geology
5. Eleanor Roosevelt did away with the Secret Service protection in 1933 because they got in the way of people speaking to her
6. Bess Truman worked in Truman’s senate office because they were short on money. Her first act as First Lady was to cancel a press conference that Eleanor set up for her…she never did one. Bess spent a lot of time driving back and forth to Independence, MO taking care of aging parents
7. Betty Ford was pro-choice and politely disagreed with her husband publicly
8. Nixon was so ashamed about resigning, he had his secretary tell Pat about 24 hours before it happened

And here is a quote I will remind myself often, especially on Memorial Day, July 4th and Veterans Day. We need women in all levels of leadership.

‘Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent ways, help me to remember that some-where someone died for me today. And if there be war, help me to remember to ask and to answer, am I worthy dying for.’

Eleanor Roosevelt’s personally written prayer she carried through FDR’s time in office

[Rev. Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sister bought me this when we toured the George W. Bush museum at SMU - fascinating details on the First Ladies from Martha Washington through Michelle Obama -- FROM THE PUBLISHER: C-SPAN's yearlong history series, First Ladies: Influence and Image, featured interviews with more than fifty preeminent historians and biographers. In this informative book, these experts paint intimate portraits of all forty-five first ladies—their lives, ambitions, and unique partnerships with their presidential spouses. Susan Swain and the C-SPAN team elicit the details that made these women who they were: how Martha Washington intentionally set the standards followed by first ladies for the next century; how Edith Wilson was complicit in the cover-up when President Wilson became incapacitated after a stroke; and how Mamie Eisenhower used the new medium of television to reinforce her, and her husband's, positive public images. This book provides an up-close historical look at these fascinating women who survived the scrutiny of the White House, sometimes at great personal cost, while supporting their families and famous husbands—and sometimes changing history. Complete with illustrations and essential biographical details, it is an illuminating, entertaining, and ultimately inspiring read.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating and complete look at First Ladies made me sorry I'm a cord cutter. I would have liked to see the C-Span series as it ran. I'm sure it was fascinating from what I understand it appealed to an audience that ran the gamut from grade schoolers to people who are likely contemporaries of the women profiled.

I liked that this book profiled the women who didn't live long enough to see their husbands in the White House but impacted the men's lives none the less. I also liked that we got profiles of the women who did serve as the official White House if there was no First Lady.

It was interesting to see that many of the wives were better educated than their husbands. I'm proud to say that many of the women from Ohio were among the best educated. So many things to make them interesting figures even today. Besides the obvious favorites I liked Lou Hoover and her business like approach to her partnership and marriage that she took all the way to the White House. And who knew Grace Coolidge was crazy about baseball just like so many of us today?

[Margherita Melillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished it mostly cos I really wanted to learn about the First Ladies of America, but the book was not completely worth it. It’s a long account that feel sometimes dry. To give an overview of each First Lady, the book spends a lot of pages on uninteresting details, instead of focusing on a few well-analyzed topics. While it identifies some common themes (and a common, unsurprising lesson: “each First Lady is reshapes her own role”), it did not answer many of the questions I had in mind or while reading. For example, the author expresses little sympathy for Jacqueline Kennedy, and claims that the press was more generous to her than to the women who preceded or followed her. But she does not really try to investigate the reasons for this. The account of the most recent First Ladies is more interesting, yet I’m not sure I learnt a lot. In the end: if you want to understand more about the topic, you’ll probably need to start from this book. But don’t spend too much time or energy on it.

[Flewts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this is not in-depth biographical studies, but rather an overview of each first lady. For some of the early ones, or ones whose husband died early, there isn't a lot of information anyway. Rather, the emphasis is on what they contributed as first ladies, and how their earlier experiences informed them, and in some cases, what they went on to do after they left the White House. Even with more controversial figures, the historians did not show bias, but simply reported what happened.

I was expecting to have to wade through long chapters on Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, and the more recent first ladies, but all were given--as much as possible--equal time, about 9-12 pages each.

Very interesting, very readable, and will give a sense of the history of each period without an intense history lesson.

[Carrie Beckstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating! I am not a fast reader, yet I couldn’t read this book fast enough. So, so interesting! Yes, you will get a brief, overarching history lesson as you read about the domestic, international, and societal events during their husbands’ administrations. However, what will really draw you to these women is their human stories. There is a common thread woven through most their lives - heartache. Whether it’s the death of a parent or child, chronic illness, poverty, loneliness, discrimination, these women have experienced defeating setbacks. Yet, they’re not defeated. They persevere, persist, and prosper. The ripple effects of many of their initiatives are still being felt today. I highly recommend this book to any aspiring historians.

[Rachel Siska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had really missed reading about history. This was the perfect dose. I had read a little of this last year when I was working on a research paper about the first ladies during the Cold War. So, I really wanted to read the rest of it.
I would definitely recommend this if you just want a starting point for learning about the first ladies. There are not a lot of details in this book because they cover each woman, but it does tell the highlights to get you interested in learning more about some of them.

[Kshydog · Rating 2 out of 5]

More tidbits of each ladies lives. Actually made some seem much nicer and better than I had learned. Forgot how long women were considered almost 2nd class by society but not by their husbands. Enjoyed getting info on them as a person with feelings. Not written in story form but liked having 2 views about the ladies. Amazing how many felt decorating was so important to the White House - in 4 yrs did so many trash it? Different perspective than I would have given for recent ladies.

[Patricia Ibarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few people pay attention to the presidents' wives in the United States, even though a well-known fact is that women play a very significant role in the lives of their husbands, particularly when they hold such an important position. I learnt so much about these women and it is a journey through two centuries of history. I enjoyed it a lot and would have never imagined how interesting and intelligent many of them were.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this book four stars if it hadn’t taken me 42 days to read it. It was so slow. I would read and read and then look at the percentage, and somehow I would have only read two or three percent in one night. Needless to say, it took forever to finish. However, I really did enjoy it. I learned a lot about all the first ladies.

The format was different — it was condensed conversations of historians from CSPAN’s show.

[David Dunlap · Rating 3 out of 5]

As is undoubtedly the case with all books of this type, the various entries for the wives of the Presidents of the United States vary from woman to woman, in terms of amount of detail and quality. I enjoyed reading about them, however, and learned a great deal -- and am spurred on to investigate some of the ladies herein depicted. (It's also probably not surprising that the chapters on the most recent First Ladies seem the weakest. "A tree is best measured when it's down.")

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of "the women behind the man." One thing that struck me is that it appears that these marriages have been fairly strong, with a few exceptions. Interesting to think about how a strong couple can be greater than the sum of their parts. The peripheral history recounted was also interesting.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historical reminder of the lives, ambitions, and work of American First Ladies. I noted especially the partnership many had with this husbands in the political careers. I had to skip reading about two recent women. Too painful to think about them and this destructive influence on the country.

[Nancy Noffke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found most of it fascinating. Some First Ladies are a little dull. Many are very dynamic. Most are very supportive of their President husbands in their own way and in their culture, their own causes, and their families. Learned many things I didn't know. "Mark, listen to this! I didn't know that!"

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was ok read. Pretty dry in its own way. A couple of historians discuss the first ladies and their contributions (or lack thereof). I didn't really like the format, although I enjoy listening to a least one of the historians on TV shows. The book has each first lady section, then two historians going back and forth with their discussion. Just didn't hold my interest.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long read but each chapter is easily manageable. Very interesting to see the evolution of not only the First Lady role but that of the President, White House and even the country. Also found the similarities in the marriage relationships interesting. Also even though we have much more info on the more recent people much of that is scripted for the press and perhaps less reliable.

[Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot simply because it is comprehensive and manageable. I know there were a lot with each president/ first last but it would be too much to differentiate the key points. So this is the key point summary of all the First Ladies.

[Apryl McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it was written with several historians and each historian had a first lady s/he was an expert on. This book gave me more details than many other books about the first ladies.

[Gloria J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure at first if I was going to be able to stick with this book, but the commentary was intriguing. It makes you realize what a valuable asset each of these ladies were to their place and time in history.