The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers PDF Author: Thomas Fleming
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Get Book Here

Book Description
A compelling, intimate look at the founders—George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison—and the women who played essential roles in their lives With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and often partners in fame. We learn of the youthful Washington's tortured love for the coquettish Sarah Fairfax, wife of his close friend; of Franklin's two "wives," one in London and one in Philadelphia; of Adams's long absences, which required a lonely, deeply unhappy Abigail to keep home and family together for years on end; of Hamilton's adulterous betrayal of his wife and then their reconciliation; of how the brilliant Madison was jilted by a flirtatious fifteen-year-old and went on to marry the effervescent Dolley, who helped make this shy man into a popular president. Jefferson's controversial relationship to Sally Hemings is also examined, with a different vision of where his heart lay. Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as his founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and public, often beset by a media every bit as gossip seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While often brilliant and articulate, the wives of the founding fathers all struggled with the distractions and dangers of frequent childbearing and searing anxiety about infant mortality—Jefferson's wife, Martha, died from complications following labor, as did his daughter. All the more remarkable, then, that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers PDF Author: Thomas Fleming
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Get Book Here

Book Description
A compelling, intimate look at the founders—George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison—and the women who played essential roles in their lives With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and often partners in fame. We learn of the youthful Washington's tortured love for the coquettish Sarah Fairfax, wife of his close friend; of Franklin's two "wives," one in London and one in Philadelphia; of Adams's long absences, which required a lonely, deeply unhappy Abigail to keep home and family together for years on end; of Hamilton's adulterous betrayal of his wife and then their reconciliation; of how the brilliant Madison was jilted by a flirtatious fifteen-year-old and went on to marry the effervescent Dolley, who helped make this shy man into a popular president. Jefferson's controversial relationship to Sally Hemings is also examined, with a different vision of where his heart lay. Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as his founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and public, often beset by a media every bit as gossip seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While often brilliant and articulate, the wives of the founding fathers all struggled with the distractions and dangers of frequent childbearing and searing anxiety about infant mortality—Jefferson's wife, Martha, died from complications following labor, as did his daughter. All the more remarkable, then, that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.

Realistic Visionary

Realistic Visionary PDF Author: Peter R. Henriques
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813927411
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examines the accomplishments and mistakes made by George Washington, discussing why he was sensitive to criticism and slow to accept blame, but still managed to envision a free and united America.

A Revolutionary Friendship

A Revolutionary Friendship PDF Author: Francis D. Cogliano
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674296591
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first full account of the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, countering the legend of their enmity while drawing vital historical lessons from the differences that arose between them. Martha Washington’s worst memory was the death of her husband. Her second worst was Thomas Jefferson’s awkward visit to pay his respects subsequently. Indeed, by the time George Washington had died in 1799, the two founders were estranged. But that estrangement has obscured the fact that for most of their thirty-year acquaintance they enjoyed a productive relationship. Precisely because they shared so much, their disagreements have something important to teach us. In constitutional design, for instance: Whereas Washington believed in the rule of traditional elites like the Virginia gentry, Jefferson preferred what we would call a meritocratic approach, by which elites would be elected on the basis of education and skills. And while Washington emphasized a need for strong central government, Jefferson favored diffusion of power across the states. Still, as Francis Cogliano argues, common convictions equally defined their relationship: a passion for American independence and republican government, as well as a commitment to westward expansion and the power of commerce. They also both evolved a skeptical view of slavery, eventually growing to question the institution, even as they took only limited steps to abolish it. What remains fascinating is that the differences between the two statesmen mirrored key political fissures of the early United States, as the unity of revolutionary zeal gave way to competing visions for the new nation. A Revolutionary Friendship brilliantly captures the dramatic, challenging, and poignant reality that there was no single founding ideal—only compromise between friends and sometime rivals.

Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts

Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Barnstable County (Mass.)
Languages : en
Pages : 968

Get Book Here

Book Description


Affairs of State

Affairs of State PDF Author: Robert P. Watson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442218347
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 501

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent years, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and countless other politicians have made headlines for their sexual scandals. But such stories are not new. Indeed, there is a long history of misbehavior in politics, including in the nation's highest office. Bill Clinton, it can safely be said, was not the first president to misbehave, nor was he the worst. In fact, there is a long history of presidential peccadilloes. Many presidents have been influenced and had their careers affected by the hand of a woman, sometimes that of a wife or mother, but at other times that of a mistress. But these stories are rarely told. Instead, history has tended to glorify our leaders. Such a scrubbed version of the lives of presidents, however, omits their marital woes, love lives, and sexual peccadilloes. As Robert P. Watson reveals, it is precisely these intimate and all-too-human moments that provide some of the most valuable insights into our leaders. Affairs of State is not just about sex and scandal--the "who did it" of history--although such incidents are described in detail. It is a book about love, marriage, and affairs in the White House, offering an intimate character study of the First Couples who made history. To see the author discuss his book on Inside South Florida, please click here. To see him discuss the book on C-SPAN, please click here.

Virginia Cary Hudson

Virginia Cary Hudson PDF Author: Beverly Mayne Kienzle
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491787805
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
An engaging and enchanting journey into a world of letters that will inspire and edify all those who love writing. Jerome Groopman, MD, Recanati Professor, Harvard Medical School, coauthor with Dr. Pamela Hartzband, "Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You." Beverly Mayne Kienzle grew up surrounded by papers and manuscripts containing the remarkable writings of her grandmother Virginia Cary Hudson Cleveland, still unpublished at her death in 1954. Beverly's mother, Virginia Cleveland Mayne, devoted herself to publishing those works. That manuscript, O Ye Jigs and Juleps!, sold for $2.50 and made its firstof sixty-sixappearances on the New York Times Best Sellers list on May 27, 1962, and three other books followed. Kienzle now returns to her roots and tells the story her mother started but never finished, the biography of Virginia Cary Hudson, a "girl who grew up preaching." In this authoritative biography, Virginia Cary Hudson, Kienzle recounts the career and family life of Virginia Cary Hudson. With warmth and humor, she reveals her grandmother's incisive observations of humankind, from simple folk to big-time gamblers, in places from Kentucky to Havana and Las Vegas. The letters and the scrapbook Beverly's grandmother completed for her, with its charming poems and drawings, appear in print for the first time, as does the narrative that Beverly's mother began in order to tell the poignant story of publishing a best seller.

George Washington

George Washington PDF Author: Laurie Calkhoven
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781402747489
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Get Book Here

Book Description
Presents the life and accomplishments of the American hero, who was the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and who became the first president of the United States.

Pretenders to the Throne

Pretenders to the Throne PDF Author: William J. C. Amend, Jr.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1499053592
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Presidency of the United States has often been held by a handful of families - the Adamses, Roosevelts among others. By this, it might seem that Americans have subconsciously long wished for a king. This novel develops the notion that we have always had one but have not known it ... yet. In 2018, cataclysmic problems threaten America. At this juncture, a clandestine society formed by Federalists in 1795 (known as PATRI) realizes that desperate measures are needed. It allies itself with European royalists to elect a third party president. The tumultuous outcome proves more than Americans had bargained for.

Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly PDF Author: John Bonner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 850

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Seamans Family in America as Descended from Thomas Seamans of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1687

The Seamans Family in America as Descended from Thomas Seamans of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1687 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book Here

Book Description