Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts

[Anita]

Our first non-fiction read of the year will be Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, for the theme: Protests, Movements, Revolutions, as nominated by Jamie.

Founding Mothers

...an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families–and their country–proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it.

While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. #1 New York Times bestselling author Cokie Roberts brings us women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps.(goodreads)

Cokie Roberts

Roberts began her radio career as a foreign correspondent for CBS in the 1970s and started covering Capitol Hill for National Public Radio (NPR) in 1978, reporting on the Panama Canal Treaty. Beginning in the early 1980s, she was assigned to Capitol Hill full-time serving as the network’s congressional correspondent for more than a decade. Roberts co-anchored ABC’s “This Week” with Sam Donaldson from 1996 through 2002.

A senior news analyst for NPR and a political commentator for ABC News, Roberts has won three Emmy Awards and was president of the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association from 1981 to 1982. She is the best-selling author of several books about American women’s history including, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters (1998), Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (2004), Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (2008), and Capital Dames (2015). Cokie Roberts died on September 17, 2019. (Office of the Historian @history.house.gov)

[Carol]

My copy from my library has been “in transit” since before Christmas, which is frustrating. When it finally arrives, I’m looking forward to joining this discussion.

[Anita]

How frustrating, Carol! I downloaded the audiobook today, but I feel like this is a book I will need to read and am waiting for a copy. But, I'm excited to read it. I became pretty interested in Cokie Roberts while doing a little research for the thread opening, and am pretty sure I will be reading more of her works this year, and maybe even some books about her.

[Jamie]

So far I'm liking the book and glad she covers a bunch of different people with different contributions/lifestyles so it's not just the same players we're used to hearing about.

[Anita]

I started this today as well, and honestly it could be a very quick read so I'm forcing myself to slow down. I'm finding it so far to be kind of a topical look at those formative years of our American foundations (clearly, the title).

The section I just finished was a very broad summary of the Revolution told by highlighting women within it - letters between the politicians and their wives as well as Washington's "blight" of camp followers I found really amusing because "Women of the Revolution" was one of the first college papers I wrote and I always chuckled at his love/hate relationship with his soldiers' women. I like that Roberts highlighted fighters, spies, and wives, and very briefly the Tories, or loyalists, but it did seem very brief. Also his battle of ego over how to spend the funds raised by the women as thanks for the soldiers was a fresh perspective. I had always read it as "troops need shirts so let them have shirts!" but here I read it more of a lower struggle on Washington's part. I'm very interested to read You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe this year.

[Anita]

Also surprised at how cold John Adams was in his correspondence with Abigail because it seems like I've seen (though not read) plenty of books about their correspondence.
Just finished part 4, wrapping up the Revolutionary years as my toe dip into Part 5 seems like it jumps to the Civil War. *it doesn't, I was wrong.

[Jamie]

Anita wrote: "Also surprised at how cold John Adams was in his correspondence with Abigail because it seems like I've seen (though not read) plenty of books about their correspondence.
Just finished part 4, wrap..."

Doesn't the author say that he was not emotional with her because his letters were intercepted and published at one point? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Anita]

Jamie wrote: "Doesn't the author say that he was not emotional with her because his letters were intercepted and published at one point? Or am I thinking of someone else?..."

Yep, that's the reason. He didn't want to feed the trolls, so to speak.

[Sophie]

It is pretty terrific that Cokie Roberts could piece together correspondences and make it so readable and interesting. American history was not of too much interest to me because of an awful high school teacher I had but I've remedied that as an adult.
An interesting tidbit about the name Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire being used as the model for the name of the President in the show West Wing. Bartlett was a Governor of New Hampshire and a delegate to the Continental Congress. Clever of those West Wing folks.