Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Betsy Ross and the Making of America” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Betsy Ross and the Making of America

Marla R. Miller (Goodreads Author)

3.54 · Rating details · 246 ratings · 59 reviews

A richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia

Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America's most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen e

...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for

Hardcover, 467 pages

Published April 27th 2010 by Henry Holt and Co. (first published 2010)

More Details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Betsy Ross and the Making of America, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Betsy Ross and the Making of America

Lists with This Book

Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller

Women of the Republic by Linda K. Kerber

Women of the American Revolution (nonfiction)

8 books — 2 voters

The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

The Bombers and the Bombed by Richard Overy

Cundill Recognition of Excellence Prize Award

14 books — 3 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

3.54 ·

Rating details

· 246 ratings · 59 reviews

Filter

Sort order

May 27, 2010 Oldroses rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, history, herstory

Normally when I review a book, I first read the book and write my review, then I read reviews written by other people. In the case of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, my introduction to the book was via a review in the New York Times Book Review dated May 9, 2010. It was not a flattering review. The reviewer, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a professor at Harvard, accuses the author, Marla R. Miller, a professor of American History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, of "sentimental fictio Normally when I review a book, I first read the book and write my review, then I read reviews written by other people. In the case of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, my introduction to the book was via a review in the New York Times Book Review dated May 9, 2010. It was not a flattering review. The reviewer, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a professor at Harvard, accuses the author, Marla R. Miller, a professor of American History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, of "sentimental fiction" which "weakens her own historical prose, which is strong enough to stand on its own" and "defeats the ultimate purpose of her book, which is to rediscover the woman behind the legend." Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the fact that, other than books for children, this is the first biography of Betsy Ross ever written. Intrigued enough to buy and read the book despite the poor review.

By the end of the first chapter, I had forgotten about the scathing review and was completely hooked. I literally couldn’t put the book down. This was American history as I had never read it before. These were real people and real experiences, not the usual dry recitations of politics and battles and tactics. I never liked American history. I felt it was boring compared to the thousands of years of history of Europe and the Mediterranean. Having been forced in high school to memorize every battle and every general of the Revolutionary War, I subsequently tuned out the following 200 years, learning just enough to pass exams while devoting my spare time to Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors and English kings who chopped their wives’ heads off. Now that’s history.

It is precisely the "sentimental fiction" that makes this book interesting to the general reader. Rather than a dry overview of the development of the city of Philadelphia, we see it from the point of view of Betsy’s great-grandfather, a master carpenter. It’s one thing to read about the tactics, such as boycotts, the colonists used to protest what they perceived to be unfair taxation. It’s quite another to read about the effects those boycotts had on the local artisans and merchants. The yellow fever epidemics that killed so many residents of Philadelphia are more meaningful when we learn of the various family members lost. Rather than just numbers, they are people that we have come to know. Small details like the families who were split between loyalty to the king and loyalty to the rebellion, illustrates the upheaval caused by this colonial rebellion much better than the usual political analysis commonly found in books on the American Revolution.

The final criticism in the review with which I disagreed was that the author devoted "only" 50 pages out of a total of 362 pages to the last 40 years of Betsy’s life, despite the fact that these are the best documented years of her life. I have to admit that after 300 pages, I was pretty much Betsy Ross’ed out. Not only was her life prior to and during the Revolution tumultuous (three husbands and seven daughters), but just trying to keep all the people, many of whom had the same names, straight made my head spin. The author’s decision to gloss over the details of the latter part of Betsy Ross’ life was a sound one. And, in the best Hollywood tradition, leaves room for a "sequel", a more in depth analysis of her life after the Revolution, to be written by the author or another historian.

After I finished the book, I went back and read the review again. My second reading of the review led me to the conclusion that the problem lay in the intention of the author. The reviewer was critiquing the book from a scholarly point of view whereas it seemed to me that the author intended her book to be read by both scholars and general readers. Scholars are more interested in facts and conclusions supported by facts. Hence the harsh review. General readers like myself do tend to speculate as we read. What was she thinking? How would I have reacted in this situation? We enjoy seeing events through the eyes and emotions of ordinary people like ourselves rather than from the lofty perspective of presidents, kings and generals.
...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2010 Marie rated it liked it

Shelves: own

This is one tough book to crack. Instead of being focused on Betsy Ross, it is a portrait of Philadelphia and how the colonies reacted to British authority before and during the American Revolution of 1770's. For the first twenty years of Betsy's life, the book comprises of about 100 pages of the aforementioned history of America with accounts of the extended ancestry of Betsy Ross. It is very wordy, but once a chapter winds down, we get a small morsel of what could have been with an entertainin This is one tough book to crack. Instead of being focused on Betsy Ross, it is a portrait of Philadelphia and how the colonies reacted to British authority before and during the American Revolution of 1770's. For the first twenty years of Betsy's life, the book comprises of about 100 pages of the aforementioned history of America with accounts of the extended ancestry of Betsy Ross. It is very wordy, but once a chapter winds down, we get a small morsel of what could have been with an entertaining foreshadowing tidbit of how something horrid is going to happen that will change Betsy's life forever. That happened several times, I turned the page excitedly, and we were back to the history lesson that was an automatic sleeping pill.

Betsy Ross whose given name was Elizabeth Griscom at her birth in 1752, is known as the legendary patriotic woman who met with George Washington in her parlour and sewed America's first official flag. As it is the stuff of legend and most probably not very true, the author Marla Miller sets out to establish the facts surrounding Betsy, her work, and other flag maker's work. In this all encompassing account of Colonial America, the author explains the political views of Betsy's immediate family and those that she came across or married into, which was a mixture of radicals, loyalists, patriots and conservatives. We do read about how Betsy gets her start in the seamstress business as she works as a young lady in an upholstery shop. The vision of Betsy simply sewing flags is shattered as we learn that Betsy was much more skilled than that as she was a part of the decorator business with chair coverings and the rare window coverings and many other household items.

Betsy's heritage and her great grandfather the talented builder Andrew Griscom are a strong focus in the book. The Boston Tea Party and the events that lead up to the Americans rebelling against the British rule who kept on taxing the Americans comprises the first half of the book. This brings us to the sad event of Betsy's first husband, John Ross, when he died mysteriously. No one really knows for sure what happened to him; he could have been injured while working with military weapons, or he could have been afflicted with a mental sickness that had also plagued his mother.

Interestingly enough, the author recounts how many citizens of America wanted to simply not be be subject to the taxes of the British, but were not expecting to actually go to war. It was the radicals who were loud enough to be heard that seemingly forced the rest of the citizens to go along with whatever was going to happen. Independence was not something that was on the colonies' minds as they opposed the Stamp Act or took part of the Boston Tea Party. The author also explains how Philadelphia was very much a capital of the the colonies, while others looked to Philadelphia for guidance. Bostonians thought they were doing Philadelphia a favor as they destroyed the tea, but Philadelphia was actually a bit chagrined.

The author writes the book with the promise that this is a story of stories, as she mentions several times that it was the grandchildren and heirs to the legend of Ross that have perpetuated certain stories that could be myths; and as such, there is indeed little proof of anything. So in order to bulk up the book, the author turned this would-be biography of Ross into something that could have sufficed as a semester of American History as well as upholstery.

This is a well-researched history of families in colonial America, but I was disappointed that it did not jump right into Betsy Ross' own life. It meanders around it and mentions Betsy or her many family members at certain intervals, but not enough to keep me entertained or ..awake through its entirety. I was once a little girl who cherished a toy bank that portrayed Betsy Ross on her yellow rocking chair as she stitched the American Flag, and even though I learned more about the times of Betsy Ross, this book did not satisfy the desire to know more about that whimsically magical person in the rocking chair. This was a book that would be better served with the title "Evolution of Colonial American Upholstery and Government, featuring Betsy Ross's Family".

...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 14, 2010 Mlg rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Beautifully researched book that attempts to separate the real woman from what may have been a myth. The author provides lots of context for Betsy's life. We follow her through three marriages, seven children, the Revolution, yellow fever epidemics, shunning by the Quakers and the rise and fall of her fortune. Betsy Ross was my great, great, great, great, great aunt and I completely enjoyed getting to know her and other relatives through this book!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2014 John rated it really liked it

This is a historians biography...in that it is a biography written by a historian. This means that though it does serve as a biography of Betsy Ross, Miller has a larger goal. She basically uses what we can piece together about the story of Betsy Ross to tell the story of craftspeople in revolutionary-era Philadelphia, and about late 18th and early 19th century Philly in general. She hopes that Ross's story will be a window into "the working men and women who built early America's cities, furnis ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 16, 2015 Easyreader rated it liked it

Interesting book from the point of view of marketing: it is not about Betsy Ross, and it would have been more accurately titled, "An Economic History of a Philadelphia Luxury-Goods Market in the Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Period." No one would have bought that, of course. The book describes, on the basis of a great deal of historical documentation, the effects of the separation from and battle with Great Britain on one important trade as carried out in one important city. Betsy Ross's ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2011 Jessie rated it liked it

I had a love-hate relationship with this book. Actually, love is too strong a word. And hate is too strong as well. The things I liked about it were the same things that annoyed me about it, but I suppose it depended on my mood.
One thing I liked was that it gave tremendous detail to the intricate lives of Betsy and her family and friends. The author successfully created the environment for us and made it possible to visualize a time that we didn't experience first hand. At times I became annoyed ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 19, 2011 Carl Williams rated it it was ok

Shelves: history

A bit of a disappointment. There isn't much direct primary source information known about Betsy Ross. So this "biography" bounces between family history, tediously written traditional history of Philadelphia during the Revolution, family stories (sometimes critical of them, other times swallowing them whole sale for no clear reason either way), and this kind of chatty, slangy, informal soap opera version of Ross' life that is popular today. "No," I want to tell Marla Miller, "we cannot assume we ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 20, 2011 Benita rated it liked it

Oh,gads, I read a whole lot more than I record on Goodreads. Must take my game to another level...
So, what did I like about this book? Well, it gave a context for Betsy Ross's life for me. She was quite the survivor, and businesswoman--not just someone who may or may not have sewn the first U.S. flag. I had thought (if I'd thought at all about it) she was some genteel wife of an officer in the army, not a woman running a successful business. I like reading history about daily life, and realize I ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2010 Jonathan Lopez rated it liked it

Shelves: american-history

Every American schoolchild knows the legend of Betsy Ross, the humble Philadelphia seamstress who received a surprise visit from George Washington in the summer of 1776 when the great general and his young nation needed a new flag.

But in "Betsy Ross and the Making of America," the first full-length biography of this beloved figure from the Revolutionary era, University of Massachusetts, Amherst professor Marla R. Miller shows that Ross' role in creating the original Stars and Stripes, a story ha ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 05, 2010 Chrissie rated it it was ok

Shelves: could-not-finish, feminist

I read a glowing review of this somewhere (Jezebel, perhaps), selling it as the TRUE story of Betsy Ross. I just couldn't get into it. The author gets sidetracked on all kinds of tangents about Philadelphia and how people were related. I wanted to like it, but the writing was just too scattered.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2012 August Maclauchlan rated it it was ok

Shelves: tried-never-got-into-it

More about Philadelphia and family background than Betsy Too much info not enough interesting things... I wish it was a smaller book with details about Betsy.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2018 Jenni V. rated it liked it

Shelves: i-own

This was very thorough and just as much about the time period as about one specific person. I was surprised to discover that as I was reading because of the title but as I'm preparing this review I realize that observation is right there in the description. I didn't look at what it was about before I bought it because it cost $1 brand-new. I couldn't read many pages at a time because of the depth and detail but it was a good one to carry in my bag for the times where I had a few minutes to read. ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 21, 2017 Brian rated it liked it

Shelves: american-history-revolution

As many other reviewers have noted this book is tangentially related to Betsy Ross but really covers the lives of every day Philadelphians leading up to an including the American revolution. It looks at those specifically in the upholstery trade as most of Ross’ family was. It is interesting and goes into tremendous detail but if you are looking for a biography of Betsy Ross and her relationship to the flag then this will not be the book for you. If you are deeply interested in how people in Pen ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 21, 2018 Susan Miller rated it really liked it

A little long and lags at times with too much minute detail, but overall I learned a lot about Quakers, Philadelphia, 18th century artisans. And Betsy Ross, too!

flag Like · see review

Feb 22, 2019 Maureen rated it it was amazing

Honest, fair, thorough, and engaging. I originally chose this book for research purposes, but found it an enjoyable read from cover to cover. A delightful find!

flag Like · see review

Jan 27, 2011 Melanie rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, history-us, 2011

This was one of the most challenging books to read I've ever attempted. I got it on a whim from the new books section of my local library and did not realize what a beast I had checked out. It took me a renew and 2 weeks of overdue fines to finish it and I almost gave up, twice.

I'm sort of glad and proud I stuck it out. The book is dense and insanely detailed -- it reads much more like a textbook than a narrative. This is compounded by the fact that women's history is so diaphanous and impermane This was one of the most challenging books to read I've ever attempted. I got it on a whim from the new books section of my local library and did not realize what a beast I had checked out. It took me a renew and 2 weeks of overdue fines to finish it and I almost gave up, twice.

I'm sort of glad and proud I stuck it out. The book is dense and insanely detailed -- it reads much more like a textbook than a narrative. This is compounded by the fact that women's history is so diaphanous and impermanent; the author spent a great deal of the book drawing conclusions from sources most people would dismiss, such as affidavits from family members, diaries and journals and religious institution records. She writes in the details when she has them -- down to how many pounds of sugar and flour Betsy bought when her sister's household was auctioned off in an effort to save them for her, how many yards of bunting and fabric and tassels an upholstery shop that might have competed with Betsy's had to display the amount of product a store would contain -- but spends a great deal more time guessing at what might have happened and filling in blanks with her best educated guesses. When the work you do is soft -- fabric, child rearing, housekeeping -- it does not withstand the standard march of time as kept by (generally) male history keepers.

Betsy had three husbands and seven daughters (not to mention 2 dozen grandchildren) over the course of her 83 years of life during one of the most tumultuous times during my country's history. That Ms. Miller managed to write 362 pages about a single woman's life from that period should not be surprising, but it is impressive. (That I managed to actually read all 362 pages is unbelievable as the book wasn't particularly engaging.) I learned a great deal about pre- and post-revolutionary United States life and history that I didn't elsewhere and an incredible amount about the life of artisans and craftspeople in changing times. I know a lot more about the upholstery business as it was in the 1700s and 1800s and value my bed and mattress a great deal more now even though mine is machine made. The book was a beast to read, though and I often had to force myself to continue when I was more inclined to just return the book to the library.

Did Betsy Ross talk General George Washington into a 5-pointed star instead of a 6-pointed star for the flag and suggest that they be arranged in a circle as the legend suggests? Maybe not. Does Betsy have a colorful, rich history as a seamstress, upholsterer and flag-maker spanning 50 years and potentially some influence in the flag as it stands today? Absolutely. All those Founding Fathers didn't stand in an organized line to sign the Declaration of Independence either, though that's the mental image we have built based on an artist's rendering. (That signing actually took months for all the signers to arrive by the slow transport available at the time and they signed as they arrived.) History isn't as clean cut and orderly as we'd have it fit into the pages of our textbooks and I think Ms. Miller does a excellent job illustrating that mushy parts of history where so much ties together to make up the truth. ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 16, 2015 Nell rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

More social and political history of pre-Revolutionary America than biography of Betsy Ross, since so little of her life can be documented. Her father was a carpenter and she was apprenticed to an upholsterer when young, eventually becoming quite successful. It's an interesting picture of life in the colonies. The upholstery trade encompassed more than it does today, including making mattresses and bed furnishings, the flags and pennants important to a shipping culture, braid and other trimmings ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 19, 2015 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-work, history

Fact or Myth: Betsy Ross sewed the first flag of the United States?

Fact or Myth: Betsy Ross improved George Washington's 6-point star design for the United States flag?

Marla Miller dives deep into the historical record to uncover the myths and realities of Betsy Ross.

The tales that we remember about Ross and her contributions to the founding of the United States come largely from the memories of a daughter and grandchildren. Miller uses these recollections as the basis for her inquiry into the ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 07, 2016 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: american-revolution, biography, colonial-america, early-american, founding-fathers, history, revolutionary-war, strong-women

This was a very interesting and well researched book. At times I felt that the author went off subject or dwelt too long or in too much detail on random things like the upholstery industry, the making of tassels, the history of the Quaker religion and even Betsy's ancestors. I do realize though that due to a small amount of existing records and details about Betsy's life the author had to thoroughly research the live's of Betsy's family and acquaintances and the time period in which they lived i ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 01, 2014 Sharon rated it really liked it

I don't understand why this book had so many negative ratings. It is, what it is. The reader needs to understand the history of the time/Philadelphia to understand Betsy Ross/Elizabeth Grishom Ross Ashburn Claypoole. Unfortunately, as the author states, there was not a lot of written documentation about Betsy Ross during her lifetime (or even in her obituary) and what we do "know" was learned from her family many years later. In this biography, Ms Miller attempts to prove the story we have all g ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 17, 2013 Becky marked it as to-read

Recommended to Becky by: Marissa via jeffy

Shelves: biography, history

I'm putting this on my to-read list because Jeff sent me this review (and I can't fit this review in the "Private notes" field). I don't often read biographies (I'd rather read a good memoir), but this sounds interesting:

Marissa Lingen raves: "Marla R. Miller, Betsy Ross and the Making of America. This book was probably the big discovery of the fortnight. I’m going around raving about it to everyone. I expected very little of it. It was one of those things that made my library list on the “huh, ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 04, 2010 Scot rated it really liked it

I've reviewed this elsewhere, so I won't write too much here. This is a social/labor history approach to understanding Betsy Ross--the real woman as opposed to the legend that would take hold around her as a powerful symbol in American civil religion from the age of American imperialism through the 20th century, and to a gradually lessening extent, an influential legend still today. It is thorough and thoughtful, and as the author is a leading expert on Revolutionary era female craft workers, sh ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 02, 2010 Pamela rated it really liked it

This was a fabulous book from a historical basis but so detailed and chockful of facts, family relations, etc., that it was difficult reading--thus the four, not five, star rating. The book clearly places Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole in the middle of the turmoil of a new nation and details how her early flag making became a family business that supported a large extended family well into the next generation as her daughter Clarissa carried on the business. The book covers, too, the role ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 07, 2010 Kelly rated it really liked it

I am one of those kids who dressed up as Betsy Ross for the Bicentennial parade. Did you know that she probably did NOT design the first American flag, and that --SHOCKING-- it was her grandkids who talked up her legend. OOPS! Did I just give away the ending? Actually, no. It's the premise of this history, which looks at the founding of the U.S. and the creation of Philadelphia through the lens of Betsy Griscom-Ross-Ashbourn-Claypool's life as an upholsterer/flag maker. Read this book and you'll ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman added it

I started this book feeling like I had read a dozen books on Betsy Ross before, but in reality, this is the first scholarly biography of the woman, and the reason appears to be that there is very little in the written record to go on. So the author compensates for what must remain speculative about her life and her influence by examining what in fact we do know ( which is not nothing) and then what we know about tradeswomen at the time she lived and what Philadelphia was like when she lived ther ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 11, 2010 Phoebe rated it liked it

In the end I skimmed parts of this lengthy book. In her foreword the author shares the fact that there are no full-length biographies of Betsy Ross for adults, but many for children. Her family capitalized on the legend of Ross and her somewhat foggy connections to the first flag. What is true is that Ross' upholstery shop was a major business in Revolutionary Philadelphia, but there is only a tiny shred of archival evidence connecting her to George Washington. The real Betsy Ross was an interes ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 22, 2010 Sherry rated it liked it

At first this book was a bit tedious because of all the names and details involved. As it progressed I admit I skimmed it sometimes, but it is an inspiring story of Betsy Ross, not just a flag maker but a wonderful example of a thinking, productive, ambitious woman, wife and mother. She was a plucky survivor who contributed much in a day by day effort to keep her country and family forging ahead. There is interesting detail of Philadelphia as an emerging city and the craftsmen who began it, the ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 10, 2010 The Library Lady rated it liked it

Shelves: adult-non-fiction

I can't give this a bad rating, because it is impeccably researched and has lots of interesting information.

The problem is that Betsy Ross's life is for the most part vaguely documented and there isn't that much to tell for a lot of it. So most of the book is about Betsy Ross's world, and there is endless stuff about the history of the upholstery trade, the Society of Friends, political history. Between that and the fact that there are dozens of people named either Elizabeth or Rebecca, this is ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 31, 2010 Jacki rated it liked it

This biography is incredibly detailed. I read until the author examined the plausibility of Washington and Ross's oft repeated encounter. I found the history and relationship with the Quakers fascinating. Most of the book is centered on the political conflicts leading up to the Revolution, background to the occupation of Upholsterer and a general history of Philadelphia. This was not surprising, seeing as how the author has very little details of Betsy Ross's life to go on. I got bogged down in ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 13, 2015 Melissa rated it liked it

Shelves: book-on-cd

I would call this false advertising!!

Since no good evidence exists regarding betsy's making of the flag, the author instead gives us an American history lesson about events leading up to the Revolutionary War, about Betsy's family history, about period upholstery, and many other things, none of which give us a life story of betsy ross. Perhaps no biographies of her exist because we dont have enough info to write one!

The book was enjoyable for a history lesson & perspective into life in phila ...more

flag Like · see review