[.ca] Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (ISBN 006009026X)

Tough People That Weaker Sex:
This book is a tremendous contribution to the historical picture. Suppose you were the wife of an upper-level Colonial Army officer who, during the annual winter pause in fighting, visits the family from November to February, then he goes back off to war and is thus not around to talk to. You, the wife, now have the management of the farm/business, with perhaps 5 children to raise, with the task of planning for the family's escape should the British invade your part of the colonies, and since women were the fighters against outbreaks of deadly infectious agents (smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, etc) you could be called into this action, and, by the way, you are 7 months pregnant. Added to this is the good chance that you could deliver the child in the heat of summer (the year being about 1780) with no electric fans, no air-conditioning, and with 1780's medical knowledge (no knowledge of viruses or bacteria, and no antibiotics). As illustrated by this book, this routinely was the situation of our Founding Mothers. And of course there is more. (By the way, window screens will not be invented for 100 years, leaving folks with the interesting choice of leaving the windows open and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, or closing the windows and sweltering.)

For In Style readers who've yet to graduate to People Mag:
With Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Cokie Roberts has provided a service to remedial readers everywhere. Writing on what appears to be a third grade reading level (which I hope reflects a choice she made and not her own reading comprehension level), Cokie's prodded her usual readers to put down their See Spot Run picture books. Trudging through page after page of facts from other books (usually better written ones), I kept attempting to think of another writer so committed to a grace-free style. Used to be that a writer of Cokie's ilk would put out a book (say, Joan Rivers) and no one who read it fooled themselves into thinking it was a great book or helping the nation's literacy levels. We knew it was trash and if we read it, we didn't try to justify it after the fact by praising it as anything other than a "page turner" (high praise for these type of books). But somewhere along the way we appear to have lost our abilities for critical thought if this repetative, plodding clip-job can be seen as anything other than a hack trying to cash in with as little work as possible. (The American dream? I don't know, we used to take pride in our work.) I made it to page 70 (and felt I lost several reading levels in the process) before I tossed this book. Couldn't even pass it on because though I do favor recycling, I couldn't in good faith risk inflicting the cellular damage this type of dull, graceless "writing" does to one's brain. I read the reviews of this hoping to find something I'd missed in the 70 pages I had read, some level on which to appreciate it. I didn't find any comments like that. Some argue it's "new" information. New to them, perhaps, but that's nothing they should scream from the rooftops. (Has Jay Leno's stupid American skits made people proud of their own ignorance?) I did read a review that cautioned readers not to mistake clip-jobs for books and not to mistake magpies for authors. I applaud that sentiment. It's sound, it's reasoned, it's informed, it's educated. But clearly there's a market for this book. I've reflected on the seventy pages read for half an hour now trying to figure out whom these people are. Then it hit me, Founding Mothers is a "book" for In Style readers who've yet to graduate to People Magazine.

Better in the hands of Doris Goodwin or John Krakauer:
The concept of this book is what interested me. I was quite inspired by the women depicted here. Unfortuantely I found the work to be poorly written. I certainly could have done without the personal commentary Cokie threaded through the book. It was as if I was being directed what to think. I "get it" I wanted to scream. The content wasn't all that bad but the book is written for the reader young reader, perhaps of high school age. I would consider it for paperback if at all.

A Rare History Told:
Here is some truly fascinating history that they just didn't teach you in school about how the wives of American presidents influenced their husbands' political decision-making and influenced the collective culture in turn. It's wonderful to see things from the vantage point of some of these remarkable women and to read these various eye-opening biographical stories of courage and sacrifice--great little anecdotes that prove that more often than not, these women were not simply sitting in the parlour-room knitting, they were taking an active political part in the life of their nation. Very informative without being dry, very well-researched and scholarly yet very readable. David Rehak author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

A Different Perspective on the Founding of America:
"Founding Mothers" tells the story of women, famous, not so famous and obscure, who contributed to the founding of the United States. In this, as in her other works, Cokie Roberts has told an excellent story. Some of the women, such as Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, we know well. Others, including Mercy Otis Warren and Eliza Pinckney, are mothers and wives of lesser known men, who influenced the crucial roles their sons and husbands played in the early Acts of the American Pageant. Some, such as Molly Pitcher, are so obscure that their actual identity is not known with certainty. This book is divided into sections pertaining to the Revolution, the writing and adoption of the Constitution and the establishment of the National Government. Some of the subjects, such as Martha Washington, play roles in more than one section. This book is well written and presents its stories so as to hold the reader's interest, regardless of whether the story is familiar or not, and central or peripheral to the development of the nation. I am always suspicious of books in which the author tries to make the subjects into something that they are not. I do not think that Ms. Roberts tries to do that in this book. Her renderings of the activities of the Founding Mothers are very believable. She seems to keep their involvement and influence, as significant as it is, within plausible limits. As readers of my reviews are aware, I have read several books about this era of our history. "Founding Mothers" presents, in an enchanting fashion, a perspective of the history largely absent from other books.