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Author Greenberg, Amy S., 1968- author.

Title Lady first : the world of first lady Sarah Polk / Amy S. Greenberg.

Publication Info. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.
©2019

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe 2nd Floor Stacks  973.61 P7592Bg 2019    ---  Available
1 copy being processed for Axe Acquisitions Order.
Edition First edition.
Description xxiii, 369 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-355) and index.
Contents Preface: Mrs. Polk's 1848 -- Blackboard, maps, and globes -- A salon in Washington -- Communications director -- Female politicians -- Mrs. Presidentess -- The power of American women to save their country -- That fine manly lady -- Profit and loss -- Neutral ground -- Influence -- Epilogue: Love makes memory eternal -- The Childress family -- The Polk family.
Summary "While the Woman's Rights convention was taking place at Seneca Falls in 1848, First Lady Sarah Childress Polk was wielding influence unprecedented for a woman in Washington, D.C. Yet while history remembers the women of the convention, it has all but forgotten Sarah Polk. Now, Amy S. Greenberg's riveting biography brings Sarah's story into vivid focus. We meet Sarah as the daughter of a frontiersman who raised her to discuss politics and business with men. We see the savvy and charm she brandished to help her brilliant but unlikeable husband, James K. Polk, ascend to the White House. We watch as she exercises truly extraordinary power as First Lady: quietly manipulating elected officials, shaping foreign policy, and directing a campaign in support of America's expansionist war against Mexico. And we meet many of the enslaved men and women whose difficult labor made Sarah's political success possible. Lady First also shines a light on Sarah's many contradictions. While her marriage to James was one of equals, she firmly opposed the feminist movement's demands for what she perceived to be far-reaching equality. She banned dancing and hard liquor from the White House, but did more entertaining than any of her predecessors. During the Civil War, she worked on behalf of the Confederacy even though she claimed to be neutral. And in the late nineteenth century, she became a celebrity among female Christian temperance reformers, while she struggled to redeem her husband's tarnished political legacy. Sarah Polk's life spanned nearly the entirety of the nineteenth century, and her legacy, which profoundly transformed the South, continues to endure. Comprehensive, nuanced, and brimming with invaluable insight, Lady First is a revelation of our eleventh First Lady's complex but essential part in American feminism."--Jacket.
Subject Polk, Sarah Childress, 1803-1891.
Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography.
Governors' spouses -- Tennessee -- Biography.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1845-1849.
Polk, Sarah Childress, 1803-1891. (OCoLC)fst00387587
Governors' spouses. (OCoLC)fst00945746
Politics and government. (OCoLC)fst01919741
Presidents' spouses. (OCoLC)fst01075830
Tennessee. (OCoLC)fst01205353
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography.
United States -- Politics and government.
Chronological Term 1845-1849
Genre/Form Nonfiction.
Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
Nonfiction.
Biographies.
ISBN 9780385354134 (hardcover)
0385354134 (hardcover)
9780385354141 (ebook)
Standard No. 40028891512

 
    
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