Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

Cokie Roberts's Founding Mothers has been on my reading list for some time. I put off reading it, though, after I finished Capital Dames, Roberts's work on women of a slighter later generation (namely, the Civil War as opposed to the Revolutionary War). Have just finished Founding Mothers, I can say what a mistake it would have been to not read it.

As a refresher, my chief complaint about Capital Dames was that Roberts tells the reader, rather than shows the reader, about the clever letters the women wrote. Rarely does she offer the reader more than a sentence or two at a time. In this way, it's difficult to get a real sense of the women as individuals, and they all kind of run together. Not until the last chapter did I feel like their true voices began to emerge.

In contrast, the women of Founding Mothers - Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, Eliza Pinckney, and Jane Mecom chief among them - emerge fully formed. Perhaps it is a testament to these women, that they were made of sterner stuff or wrote with more grace and humor, or perhaps it is the way Roberts approached this book, in a conversational tone full of her own humorous asides, but something here really clicked. (And speaking of asides, Mecom was the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin, and his lifelong correspondent. She fares much better in Founding Mothers than in Book of Ages, which is entirely devoted to the Franklins' correspondence.)

Roberts opens with a disclaimer that these were extraordinary women, women who had the ear of the Founding Fathers, and that their experiences were not representative of the vast majority of women of their time. Fair enough, but Roberts also delves into the existence of the ordinary woman, where possible, and as it fits neatly within the narrative. Her account of women soldiers in the Revolutionary War is fascinating, particularly in contrast to the way those of the Civil War were treated. The former received official recognition and pensions; the latter were shunned and shamed for decades. She also examines the (slow) evolution of girls' education and the initial fights over suffrage. For example, in New Jersey women voted in large numbers until 1807 when voter fraud led the state's (need I say: all male) Assembly to clarify that only white males would be allowed to vote. But I digress.

Roberts also devotes no small amount of ink delving into the various scandals of the day, more than one of which revolved around Alexander Hamilton. Evidently, Martha Washington showed good common sense in naming her tomcat Hamilton. Even by today's standards he was a bit of a cad.

In short, Founding Mothers is pure reading pleasure. It is one of the best and most complete books on women's lives, certainly the best I've read since Plantation Mistress.

Five stars.