Research Catalog

Lady first : the world of first lady Sarah Polk

Title

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

Author

Greenberg, Amy S., 1968-

Publication

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

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Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 19-4957	Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description

xxiii, 369 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map; 25 cm

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."--Dust jacket.

Subject

Genre/Form

Nonfiction.
Biography.
Biographies.

Note

"This is a Borzoi Book."

Bibliography (note)

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.

Call Number

JFE 19-4957

ISBN

9780385354134
0385354134

LCCN

2018010748
40028891512

OCLC

1028606805

Author

Greenberg, Amy S., 1968- author.

Title

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

Publisher

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.

Copyright Date

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-355) and index.

Chronological Term

1845-1849

Other Form:

Online version: Greenberg, Amy S., 1968- Lady first. First edition. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2019] 9780385354141 (DLC) 2018012602

Other Standard Identifier

40028891512

Research Call Number

JFE 19-4957

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