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Normal women: Nine hundred years of making history
Par Philippa Gregory. 2024
"Lively, timely and gloriously energetic. Each page bursts with life, and every chapter swirls with personalities left out of traditional…
narratives of Britain's past. Philippa Gregory has produced something rare and wonderful: a genuinely new history of [Britain], with women at its beating heart." —Dan Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Plantagenets "Stunning. . . . Full of surprises. . . . A brilliant, essential read." —The Independent (UK) The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus—a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history and "should be included in every history lesson" (Glamour UK) Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they'd evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory's Normal Women. In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The "normal women" you will meet in these pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot. A landmark work of scholarship and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change—from 1066 to modern times—powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of womenCloser Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other
Par Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. 2024
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau invites readers on a deeply personal journey toward self-knowledge, acceptance, and empowerment, drawing on the expertise of…
top psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, and thought leaders.As a passionate advocate for mental health, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau believes that in order to know and accept ourselves fully, we need to understand why we think and feel the way we do, and recognize the experiences, attitudes, and patterns that may be holding us back. And yet, all of us are capable of growth and positive change, if we're willing to stay open and curious throughout our lives.In Closer Together, Sophie shares moments from her own journey: from her childhood, through her struggles with an eating disorder in her teens and early adulthood; from a career as a speaker and television host to de facto "first lady" and mother of three. Above all, Sophie is a warm and empathetic connector, and her book is enriched by exclusive interviews with experts such as Gabor Maté, Liz Plank, Terrence Real, Catherine Price, Harville Hendrix, and Helen LaKelly Hunt—to name just a few—as she delves into the science behind brain health and our unique emotional signatures. She explores the questions that matter the most for our individual and collective growth, and in how we interact with others:How does the way we were raised contribute to our sense of self?How can we better prepare ourselves to deal with big emotions?What do we need from our relationships, and what can we contribute to them?What role do physical activity and creative pursuits play in mental health?How can we let go of what doesn’t serve us and nurture what does?Drawing on her own mindfulness and yoga practices, Sophie also offers journalling prompts and other tools that will guide readers as they explore these questions in their own lives. In creating a space for openness, playfulness, and creativity, Sophie inspires us to see that there are more things that bring us together than separate us, allowing us to stand in the light of our true potential.Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse
Par Denise Chong. 2024
From the bestselling author of The Concubine’s Children and The Girl in the Picture, a gripping story of a domestic…
assault that shocked the world, of the exercise of power and political influence, and of the Bangladeshi woman whose irrepressible spirit found light in sudden darkness.From the outside, Rumana seemed an unlikely victim of domestic abuse: married to a man of her own choosing and progressing in her career as a professor of international relations at Dhaka University. But in 2011, on return from graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, her husband attacked and blinded her in front of their young daughter. As Rumana's horrifying story garnered international headlines, and connections brought her to Vancouver in an attempt—ultimately futile—to restore her sight, her plight underscored the fact that there are no typical victims of intimate-partner violence. Denise Chong goes behind the headlines to reveal the devolution of a love story into a tale of tyranny behind closed doors, and the pursuit of justice that proved all the more elusive during the rise of social media. Out of Darkness tells a globe-spanning narrative of loyalty, perseverance and a woman’s determination to face the future and rebuild a life with meaning.Spílexm: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence
Par Nicola I. Campbell. 2021
If the hurt and grief we carry is a woven blanket, it is time to weave ourselves anew.In the Nłeʔkepmxcín…
language, spíləx̣m are remembered stories, often shared over tea in the quiet hours between Elders. Rooted within the British Columbia landscape, and with an almost tactile representation of being on the land and water, Spíləx̣m explores resilience, reconnection, and narrative memory through stories.Captivating and deeply moving, this story basket of memories tells one Indigenous woman&’s journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and resurgence.Pieces of a Girl
Par Stephanie Kuehnert. 2024
A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the…
author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.We all grow up with rules. Do this, be this, don't be that. Qin Qin was all about the rules:…
do your homework, be good, don't rock the boat. She was the model daughter, model student and model minority.But doing everything right? It made her lost and miserable. So she decided to take a spectacular risk and change everything.At 23, Qin Qin was an unhappy overachiever working for a prestigious law firm. So she quit. She didn't know what else was out there, but she wanted to find out. She changed paths, changed countries, changed her entire view of what the world could be, and who she could be - with some primal screaming and tree-hugging along the way.In the process, she discovered the person she truly was, not who she thought she should be.Model Minority Gone Rogue is a funny, sad, exhilarating and thought-provoking true story about what happens when you want to live life on your own terms, even when those terms go against everything you've ever known. It's a story of what happens when you choose love over fear and honour your authentic self: life can be bigger and brighter than anything you had ever imagined.'Qin Qin is a living example of the adage: screw things up, thoughtfully. With every chapter of her story, she illuminates an alternative model to the corrosive stories we've taken on and been told about what we should be, rather than who we could be. Read this and feel yourself untangle and unknot.' BENJAMIN LAW, author, journalist and broadcaster'Model Minority Gone Rogue is about finding yourself against the expectations your parents, society and gender set out for you and courageously venturing into uncharted terrain ... It is illuminating, generous and full of gutsy hard-won wisdom.' ALICE PUNG, bestselling author of Unpolished Gem'I wish this book had existed when I was growing up. It will shock you, move you and educate you. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about the experience of being an Australian of Chinese heritage.' SUE-LIN WONG, award-winning The Economist correspondent and The Prince podcast host'Bold and frequently surprising, Qin Qin brings the same challenge to her readers as she has for her hard-won identity: grow, love and question everything! Model Minority Gone Rogue is a book for anyone who has ever screamed on the inside, with powerful and unyielding observations on sex, race, the body and feminism.' CADANCE BELL, author and TV producer, writer and director'Sassy, sad, funny, unvarnished.' CANBERRA TIMESSpílexm: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence
Par Nicola I. Campbell. 2021
If the hurt and grief we carry is a woven blanket, it is time to weave ourselves anew.In the Nłeʔkepmxcín…
language, spíləx̣m are remembered stories, often shared over tea in the quiet hours between Elders. Rooted within the British Columbia landscape, and with an almost tactile representation of being on the land and water, Spíləx̣m explores resilience, reconnection, and narrative memory through stories.Captivating and deeply moving, this story basket of memories tells one Indigenous woman&’s journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and resurgence.Crave: A Memoir of Food and Longing
Par Christine S. O'Brien. 2018
“Do you mind that I’m going to be writing a book about the fact that I was hungry?” I asked…
my mother. “Just tell a good story,” she replied.Hunger comes in many forms. In her memoir, Crave, Christine S. O’Brien tells a story of family turmoil and incessant hunger hidden behind the luxury and privilege of New York’s famed Dakota apartment building. Her explosively angry father was ABC Executive Ed Scherick, the successful television and film producer who created shows and films like ABC’s Wide World of Sports and The Stepford Wives. Raised on farm in the Midwest, her calm, beautiful mother Carol narrowly survived a dramatic accident when she was child. There was no hint of instability in her life until one day she collapsed in the family’s apartment and spent the next year in bed. “Your mother’s illness is not physical,” Christine’s father tells her. Craving a cure for a malady that the doctors said had no physical basis, Carol resorted to increasingly bizarre nutritional diets—from raw liver to fresh yeast—before beginning a rigid dietary regime known as “The Program.” It consisted largely of celery juice and blended salads—a forerunner of today’s smoothie. Determined to preserve the health of her family, Carol insisted that they follow The Program. Despite their constant hunger, Christine and her three younger brothers loyally followed their mother’s eating plan, even as their father’s rage grew and grew. The more their father screamed, the more their mother’s very survival seemed to depend on their total adherence to The Program. This well-meant tyranny of the dinner table led Christine to her own cravings for family, for food, and for the words to tell the story of her hunger. Crave is the chronicle of Christine’s painful and ultimately satisfying awakening. And, just as her mother asked, it’s a good story.The Bridesmaid's Daughter: From Grace Kelly's Wedding to a Women's Shelter—Searching for the Truth About My Mother
Par Nyna Giles, Eve Claxton. 2012
A daughter’s moving search to understand her mother, Carolyn Scott—once a bridesmaid to Princess Grace and one of the first…
Ford models—who later in life spent years living in a homeless shelter.Nyna Giles was picking up groceries at the supermarket one day when she looked down and saw the headline on the cover of a tabloid: “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” Nyna was stunned, shocked to see her family’s private ordeal made so public—the woman mentioned on that cover, Carolyn Scott Reybold, was her mother. Nyna’s childhood had been spent in doctor’s offices. Too ill, she was told, to go to school like other children, she spent nearly every waking moment at her mother’s side at their isolated Long Island estate or on trips into the city to see the ballet. The doctors couldn’t tell her what was wrong, but as Nyna grew up, her mother, who’d always seemed fragile, became more and more distant. Now Nyna was forced to confront an agonizing realization: she barely knew the woman on the magazine in front of her. She knew that her mother had been a model after arriving in New York in 1947, living at the Barbizon Hotel, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly and that the two had become fast friends. Nyna had seen the photos of Carolyn at Grace’s wedding, wearing the yellow bridesmaid gown that had hung in her closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up—the mother who was now living in a shelter? In this powerful memoir of friendship and motherhood, Nyna Giles uncovers her mother’s past to answer the questions she never knew to ask.Madame Claude: Her Secret World of Pleasure, Privilege, & Power
Par William Stadiem. 2018
The life of Madame Claude, the brilliant and complicated and utterly amoral woman behind the most glamorous and successful escort…
service in the world.In post-WWII Paris, Madame Claude ran the most exclusive finishing school in the world. Her alumnae married more fortunes, titles and famous names than any of the Seven Sisters. The names on her client list were epic—Kennedy, Rothschild, Agnelli, Onassis, Niarchos, Brando, Sinatra, McQueen, Picasso, Chagall, Qaddafi, the Shah, and that's just for starters. By the 1950s, she was the richest and most celebrated self-made woman in Europe, as much of a legend as Coco Chanel. Born Fernande Grudet, a poor Jewish girl in the aristocratic chateau city of Angers, the future Madame led a life of high adventure—resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, gun moll of the Corsican Mafia and erstwhile streetwalker—before becoming the ultimate broker between beauty and power. She harnessed the emerging postwar technology of the telephone to create the concept of the call girl. But Madame Claude wasn't just selling sex—she was the world's ultimate matchmaker, the Dolly Levi of the Power Elite.She was also one of the most controversial—and most wanted—women in the world. Now, through his own conversations with the woman herself and interviews with the great men and remarkable women on whom she built her empire, social historian and biographer William Stadiem pierces the veil of Claude’s secret, forbidden universe of pleasure and privilege.Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me
Par Sheryl Weinstein. 2009
Nobody knew Bernie like I did, and nobody knows about me…Sheryl Weinstein met Bernie Madoff when she was just shy…
of forty, and went on to have a twenty-year secret, intimate relationship with the man now known as an evil mastermind, a villain of the greatest proportions. It was 1988 and Sheryl was facing a huge dilemma. Bernie Madoff was paying her a great deal of attention. She was in the midst of a rocky marriage and feeling vulnerable, when the powerful Wall Street mogul began making overtures. As a successful CPA and head of a major charitable organization, she had a lot to lose. She directed him to take things slowly. Over the next five years, there were business meetings over lunch, followed by intimate dinners in hotel rooms and finally, private moments that for a time seemed intensely satisfying to them both. "I'm not to be trusted," he once told her casually. She ignored it, having no idea how prophetic those words would be. After all, her relationship with Bernie was passionate and profound. She felt desirable. She was the one nobody knew about, with the window into the real man. So careful about investing her money, when the SEC cleared him in 1992 she decided to get in all the way--with her heart, her soul--and her financial future.Sheryl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She couldn't possibly have imagined the devastation that would befall her. Learning the truth was shattering on so many levels. Many books are being written about the scale of Madoff's fraud, but until now, nothing has shown the man through private eyes. Sheryl Weinstein's riveting story reveals a Madoff who will shock and surprise you. From the boardroom to the bedroom, in each other, the two found something that had been lacking in their own lives. It's a story with tragic overtones--a drama that only now could find a devastating conclusion.Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique
Par Sydney Ladensohn Stern. 1997
Includes a new afterword: A &“richly detailed&” biography of the iconic feminist based on interviews with friends, family, colleagues, and…
Steinem herself (The Washington Post). Going beyond Gloria Steinem&’s public persona, this biography provides an in-depth portrait of the famed activist—covering her family of origin, Smith College education, travels in India, founding of Ms. magazine, and much more—drawn from fifty hours of interviews with Steinem, as well as conversations with more than two hundred people in her life. &“Stern&’s biography is sympathetic but critical about the woman who was once perhaps the foremost figure of American feminism. . . . Follows its subject from her childhood with a mentally ill mother and ne&’er-do-well father through her rise in the women&’s movement.&” —The New York Times Book Review &“Feminist icon, goddess, social climber, bunny—who is Gloria Steinem? All of the above, according to [this] serious new biography. . . . A real look at Steinem off the public platform.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Avoiding esoteric psychological or feminist theorizing, Stern still provides a clear context for Steinem&’s development both as a public figure and as an exemplar of the movement that seeks to have women define themselves as autonomous individuals.&” —Library JournalIncludes photographsMolly: The True Story of the Amazing Dog Who Rescues Cats
Par Colin Butcher. 2019
Molly: The True Story of the Amazing Dog Who Rescues Cats tells the heartwarming story of the man-and-dog team behind…
the United Kingdom Pet Detective Agency—how Colin, in need of a new lease on life, rescues Molly the dog, and how Molly in turn rescues many more beloved lost pets. As a veteran of the Royal Navy and longtime police officer, Colin Butcher was no stranger to dangerous situations. But a career in uniform can wear anyone down, so, in 2003, Colin left the force to start his own private detective agency, specializing in helping reunite people with their missing pets. And yet, despite his hundreds of successes, there were still heartbreaking cases where Colin couldn’t find the missing on his own. He knew he needed a partner. When Colin first met Molly, his friends doubted that she would be up for the job. Where Colin was battle-tested, Molly was young and inexperienced. She was willful, wayward, and stubborn. But Colin could tell that Molly was unusually charismatic and intelligent. He decided to take a risk and bring on Molly for training. Yes, Molly is no ordinary deputy, but a black Cocker Spaniel, and this is no ordinary detective agency. Trained by the top canine behavioral experts at Medical Detection Dogs, Molly can find missing cats—who are uniquely skilled at eluding humans—by detecting a unique scent signature, and she has been wildly successful. The work is not always easy. Molly has faced hardships ranging from a near-fatal snakebite to the challenge of winning over Colin’s girlfriend, Sarah. But through it all, Colin and Molly share an enduring love and affection. More than a working relationship, Molly is part of the family. Together, they are the Sherlock and Watson of missing pets.A Fighting Chance
Par Elizabeth Warren. 2014
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two-decade journey that taught her…
how Washington really works—and really doesn't—in A Fighting ChanceAs a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and then become an elementary school teacher—an ambitious goal, given her family's modest means. Early marriage and motherhood seemed to put even that dream out of reach, but fifteen years later she was a distinguished law professor with a deep understanding of why people go bankrupt. Then came the phone call that changed her life: could she come to Washington DC to help advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcy laws?Thus began an impolite education into the bare-knuckled, often dysfunctional ways of Washington. She fought for better bankruptcy laws for ten years and lost. She tried to hold the federal government accountable during the financial crisis but became a target of the big banks. She came up with the idea for a new agency designed to protect consumers from predatory bankers and was denied the opportunity to run it. Finally, at age 62, she decided to run for elective office and won the most competitive—and watched—Senate race in the country. In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing book, Warren shows why she has chosen to fight tooth and nail for the middle class—and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that America's government can and must do better for working families.Monica's Story
Par Andrew Morton. 1999
Go beyond the headlines of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and revisit the story of Monica Lewinsky in this authorized biography from…
Andrew Morton, the basis for the FX miniseries Impeachment.Monica Lewinsky. You know her name, you know her face, and you think you know her story: the pretty young intern who began an illicit affair with the President of the United States-- a liaison that ignited an unprecedented political scandal and found Bill Clinton as the second U.S. president to ever be impeached. But there is much more to the Monica Lewinsky story than just that. Andrew Morton, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Diana: Her True Story, takes you behind the headlines and the sound bites to discover the real Monica Lewinsky, a woman as interesting, intelligent, and misunderstood as they come.Read Monica's Story and you'll discover:* How a difficult childhood shaped Monica's tumultuous adult romances* Her relationship with Bill Clinton: how she saw a side to him few know-- and why she sometimes still missed her "Handsome"* The betrayal by Linda Tripp-- and how Monica's trusting nature snared her in Tripp's treacherous web* The horror of Kenneth Starr's exhaustive and intrusive inquiry-- how it affected her and her family, and how it still haunts her* What Monica's hopes were, in the wake of the scandal, from career plans, to marrying, and family life.* And much, much moreWith sixteen pages of photographs.My Misspent Youth: Essays
Par Meghan Daum. 2015
My Misspent Youth is an incisive collection that marked the start of a new millennium and became a cult classic,…
from the editor of Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed and the author of The UnspeakableAn essayist in the tradition of Joan Didion, Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognized for her fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths the hidden fault lines in the American landscape.From her well remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber-relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff in Harper's about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her.Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit
Par Eliese Colette Goldbach. 2020
"Elements of Tara Westover’s Educated... The mill comes to represent something holy to [Eliese] because it is made not of…
steel but of people."—New York Times Book ReviewOne woman's story of working in the backbreaking steel industry to rebuild her life—but what she uncovers in the mill is much more than molten metal and grueling working conditions. Under the mill's orange flame she finds hope for the unity of America.Steel is the only thing that shines in the belly of the mill...To ArcelorMittal Steel Eliese is known as #6691: Utility Worker, but this was never her dream. Fresh out of college, eager to leave behind her conservative hometown and come to terms with her Christian roots, Eliese found herself applying for a job at the local steel mill. The mill is everything she was trying to escape, but it's also her only shot at financial security in an economically devastated and forgotten part of America. In Rust, Eliese brings the reader inside the belly of the mill and the middle American upbringing that brought her there in the first place. She takes a long and intimate look at her Rust Belt childhood and struggles to reconcile her desire to leave without turning her back on the people she's come to love. The people she sees as the unsung backbone of our nation. Faced with the financial promise of a steelworker’s paycheck, and the very real danger of working in an environment where a steel coil could crush you at any moment or a vat of molten iron could explode because of a single drop of water, Eliese finds unexpected warmth and camaraderie among the gruff men she labors beside each day.Appealing to readers of Hillbilly Elegy and Educated, Rust is a story of the humanity Eliese discovers in the most unlikely and hellish of places, and the hope that therefore begins to grow.Arbitrary Stupid Goal
Par Tamara Shopsin. 2017
One of The New Yorker's "Books We Loved in 2017"“Arbitrary Stupid Goal is a completely riveting world—when I looked up…
from its pages regular life seemed boring and safe and modern like one big iPhone. This book captures not just a lost New York but a whole lost way of life.” —Miranda JulyIn Arbitrary Stupid Goal, Tamara Shopsin takes the reader on a pointillist time-travel trip to the Greenwich Village of her bohemian childhood, a funky, tight-knit small town in the big city, long before Sex and the City tours and luxury condos. The center of Tamara’s universe is Shopsin’s, her family’s legendary greasy spoon, aka “The Store,” run by her inimitable dad, Kenny—a loquacious, contrary, huge-hearted man who, aside from dishing up New York’s best egg salad on rye, is Village sheriff, philosopher, and fixer all at once. All comers find a place at Shopsin’s table and feast on Kenny’s tall tales and trenchant advice along with the incomparable chili con carne. Filled with clever illustrations and witty, nostalgic photographs and graphics, and told in a sly, elliptical narrative that is both hilarious and endearing, Arbitrary Stupid Goal is an offbeat memory-book mosaic about the secrets of living an unconventional life, which is becoming a forgotten art.A Wild and Precious Life: A Memoir
Par Edie Windsor, Joshua Lyon. 2019
A lively, intimate memoir from a marriage equality icon of the gay rights movement, describing gay life in the 1950s…
and 60s New York City and her longtime activism."Brash, funny and brave." —NPR“A captivating and inspiring story of a queer woman who believed in her right to take up space and be seen.”—BuzzFeed"Windsor’s story fighting for what she believed in is one that will leave readers inspired." —NBC OUTEdie Windsor became internationally famous when she sued the US government, seeking federal recognition for her marriage to Thea Spyer, her partner of more than four decades. The Supreme Court ruled in Edie’s favor, a landmark victory that set the stage for full marriage equality in the US. Beloved by the LGBTQ community, Edie embraced her new role as an icon; she had already been living an extraordinary and groundbreaking life for decades. In this memoir, which she began before passing away in 2017 and completed by her co-writer, Edie recounts her childhood in Philadelphia, her realization that she was a lesbian, and her active social life in Greenwich Village's electrifying underground gay scene during the 1950s. Edie was also one of a select group of trailblazing women in computing, working her way up the ladder at IBM and achieving their highest technical ranking while developing software. In the early 1960s Edie met Thea, an expat from a Dutch Jewish family that fled the Nazis, and a widely respected clinical psychologist. Their partnership lasted forty-four years, until Thea died in 2009. Edie found love again, marrying Judith Kasen-Windsor in 2016. A Wild and Precious Life is remarkable portrait of an iconic woman, gay life in New York in the second half of the twentieth century, and the rise of LGBT activism.A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
Par Catherine Allgor. 2006
An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, groundbreaking portrait of the early days of the republic—and the birth…
of modern politicsWhen the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of American politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation's newly minted capital. Into that unsteady atmosphere, which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain in 1812, Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband, James. Within a few years, she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and by her death in 1849 was the most celebrated person in Washington. And yet, to most Americans, she's best known for saving a portrait from the burning White House, or as the namesake for a line of ice cream. Why did her contemporaries give so much adulation to a lady so little known today? In A Perfect Union, Catherine Allgor reveals that while Dolley's gender prevented her from openly playing politics, those very constraints of womanhood allowed her to construct an American democratic ruling style, and to achieve her husband's political goals. And the way that she did so—by emphasizing cooperation over coercion, building bridges instead of bunkers—has left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics. Introducing a major new American historian, A Perfect Union is both an illuminating portrait of an unsung founder of our democracy, and a vivid account of a little-explored time in our history.