A Perfect Union; Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
Raquel Jaramillo (Jacket design) New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2006. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. x, [4], 493, [5] pages. Illustrated endpaper. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Catherine Allgor (born 26 November 1958) is an American historian and bestselling author. She specializes in biographies of American First Ladies. Allgor is a professor of history at UC Riverside. She has also taught at Claremont McKenna College, Harvard University, and Simmons College. She has served as President of Massachusetts Historical Society. Allgor has also served as the Nadine and Robert Skotheim Director of Education at the Huntington Library. She is a leading historian and has created and taught numerous courses in women’s history, American history, history of race, slavery, and political history at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She is known for her scholarly work on Dolley Madison and Louisa Catherine Adams, among others. Her political biography, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. Derived from a Kirkus review: It’s not a stretch to consider Dolley Madison the perfect First Lady. As Allgor details, Dolley and James Madison certainly enjoyed an uncommonly good partnership. He was 43 and she 25 when they married. Dolley was a master of practical diplomacy. She put her skills to work early on, when James became Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of state. One of the more newsworthy aspects of this book is its revelation of Jefferson’s misogyny and poor manners, which resulted in more than one diplomatic flap. So skillful was Dolley at repairing some of the damage Jefferson did that she even managed to fly under his radar, even as he sternly condemned other women active in Washington politics. Dolley also forged a diplomacy of the dining-room table that brought together feuding Federalists and Republicans. So it was when she became First Lady, taking charge of making a White House worthy of the name, soon to be burned by the British in the War of 1812, in which she emerged as a national hero. Allgor also credits Dolley with skillful campaigning that saved her husband’s bid for reelection in 1812. A welcome life of a woman who deserves greater representation in history books. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Dolley Madison, James Madison, U.S. Presidents, First Ladies, Washington, DC, War of 1812, Politics & Government, Thomas Jefferson, Montpelier, Joel Barlow, White House, Executive Mansion, Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson, Merry Affair, Anthony
ISBN: 0805073272
[Book #55358]
Price: $35.00