First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents
Author: Bonnie Angelo
Behind every successful man, they say, is a woman. And in the case of U.S. Presidents, the women who shaped their characters to the greatest degree were their mothers. Now, First Mothers tells the stories of the women—Sara Delano Roosevelt, Martha Truman, Ida Eisenhower, Rose Kennedy, Rebekah Baines Johnson, Hannah Milhous Nixon, Dorothy Ford, Lillian Carter, Nelle Reagan, Dorothy Bush, and Virginia Kelley—who raised the American presidents of our times.
Bonnie Angelo creates much more than a faded daguerreotype in the family album, offering enthralling personal anecdotes that leap right off the page. She captures the daily lives, thoughts, and feelings of these remarkable women, and the relationships between them and their sons (and their daughters-in-law as well). Drawing on unprecedented interviews with living relatives, this is a richly textured, in-depth look at the special mother-son bonds that nurtured the last 11 American presidents to the pinnacle of power.
Hugh Sidney - Time
Fresh and unique insight that is simply and gracefully written.
Hugh Sidey
First Mothers offers fresh and unique insight that is simply and gracefully written. A mother's hand shapes and inspires presidents — and those who would be — more than any other force, and by so doing carries this grand republic along. —Time
Helen Thomas
Bonnie Angelo has written a superb book depicting and defining the profound influence of mothers on so many presidents. Angelo found the key to presidential personalities and ambitions — their mothers. Her book is beautifully written and long needed.
Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Through new research, Bonnie Angelo has assembled a fresh and enlightening perspective on that most primary of all human relationships — motherhood. First Mothers gives us the human beings, in their attributes and deficiencies with an understanding narrative voice.
Publishers Weekly
Presidents are born, not made, right? On the contrary, claims Angelo, a veteran Time correspondent, who makes it clear that it's the cut of the apron and the strength of its strings that turn a son into a president. The 11 first mothers included in this illuminating and irresistibly readable book--every presidential mother from Sarah Delano Roosevelt on--all instilled in their sons supreme confidence and (with the exception of Sara Roosevelt) an awareness of social issues. Drawing on letters, interviews (including those with Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush) and historical evidence, Angelo paints vivid portraits of these "indomitable American women" whose gumption and drive to see their sons succeed were (with the exception of Virginia Clinton Kelley) very much steeped in what Tocqueville described as a 19th-century spirit of independence. In fact, while all these women were "highly individualistic," Angelo points out how much they had in common: all of them married late, and most of their marriages were marked by terrible trials and tragedies. Angelo explains that she started with the story of FDR's mother because his presidency marked "the beginning of contemporary America and the modern presidency, the prize that now can be won only by men of supreme self-assurance who are willing to withstand the grinding process and microscopic examination." While telling their individual histories, Angelo also draws fascinating parallels that indicate how the grounded philosophy and fighting spirit of the mother became that of the son (e.g., Lillian Gordy Carter learned from her father to treat blacks with care--an attitude that was decried by their neighbors but had an enormous impact on Jimmy Carter's presidential focus on equality). 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Lane Zachary. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Library Journal
According to journalist Angelo (Time magazine), mothers have served as the "wellspring of confidence, toughness, and resilience" necessary to the success of the last 11 presidents--from FDR to Bill Clinton--and this collection of thumbnail biographies has a relentlessly upbeat tone. Fun-loving and much-married Virginia Clinton Kelley takes the biggest hit: the author holds her responsible for Clinton's "personal character," which, she remarks, "is flawed." Richard Nixon's character, on the other hand, is not described as "flawed" but as "complex." His mother gets off scot-free, although Hannah Nixon never kissed or hugged her children (just as well, according to her son, who described the custom as "nauseating"), nor did she ever tell any of them that she loved them. But, Angelo concludes, the profound bond between mother and son "requir[ed] no reassurance through word or touch." A different analyst might have explored this relationship more trenchantly. This book will attract a lay audience, not a scholarly one.--Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
All-to-brief if tantalizing bios of the mothers of 11 presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to William Jefferson Clinton. Less about the mothers themselves than their relationships to their famous sons, this collection whets the appetite for more information about these First Moms. Veteran Time correspondent Angelo includes information from personal interviews with three former presidents, as well as the siblings, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren of seven others, to add a fresh dimension to often well-worked material. The mothers, like their sons, offer distinct contrasts: the privileged and redoubtable Sara Roosevelt vs. the pioneering Martha Truman (who survived Indian raids on the frontier and spent three years in a Union"detention camp" during the Civil War); the undemonstrative, self-effacing Hannah Nixon balanced against the feisty and outspoken Lillian Carter; the wellborn and athletic Dorothy Bush set against the flashy Virginia Clinton Kelley (whose interest in sports stopped at the racetrack). Keeping the pseudo-psychology to a minimum, Angelo nevertheless finds many similarities among these women, not the least of which is devotion to and ambitions for their children—often the presidential son in particular. Although most of the mothers suffered tragedy or hardship in their lifetimes, virtually all were intelligent, opinionated, concerned about social issues, and generally optimistic about life. And lastly, almost all were"daddy's girls," devoted to their own fathers and equally cherished in return. That, Angelo speculates, built up a self-confidence that they were able to pass on to their own children. The author also introducesthefuture First Ladies as the prospective brides were brought home to mother. Some relationships worked better than others, but Virginia Kelley's straight-faced comment is a keeper:"for me, Hillary has been a growth experience." Some provocative glimpses, but not much more. (16 pp. b&w photos, not seen)
What People Are Saying
Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Fresh and enlightening perspectives.
—(Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author of FIrst Ladies)
Helen Thomas
A superb book depicting and defining the profound influence of mothers on so many presidents.
—(Helen Thomas, UPI White House Bureau Chief)
Book review: Cooking for Life or Diabetes mellitus
Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World
Author: Ashraf Ghani
Today between forty and sixty nations, home to over a billion people, have either collapsed or are teetering on the brink of failure. The world's worst problems--terrorism, drugs and human trafficking, absolute poverty, ethnic conflict, disease, genocide--originate in such states, and the international community has devoted billions of dollars to solving the problem. Yet by and large the effort has not succeeded.
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart have taken an active part in the effort to save failed states for many years, serving as World Bank officials, as advisers to the UN, and as high-level participants in the new government of Afghanistan. Now, in Fixing Failed States, they describe the issue--vividly and convincingly--offering an on-the-ground picture of why past efforts have not worked and advancing a groundbreaking new solution to this most pressing of global crises. Military force, while certainly necessary on occasion, cannot solve the fundamental problems, and humanitarian interventions cost billions yet do not leave capable states in their wake. Ghani and Lockhart argue that only an integrated state-building approach can heal these failing countries. As they explain, many of these countries already have the resources they need, if only we knew how to connect them to global knowledge and put them to work in the right way. Their state-building strategy, which assigns responsibility equally among the international community, national leaders, and citizens, maps out a clear path to political and economic stability. The authors provide a clear, practical framework for achieving these ends, supporting their case with first-hand examples of struggling territories suchas Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and Nepal as well as the world's success stories--Singapore, Ireland, and even the American South.
The battle against terror, poverty, climate change, and much more cannot be won unless we can save these nations. In Fixing Fixed States, two of the world's foremost authorities offer a way out of the current crisis--a framework for re-imagining the international system. It is a book that is unique in its essential optimism--an optimism that the authors have earned through their own substantial real-world efforts in failed states.
Publishers Weekly
Ghani and Lockhart, both former U.N. advisers to Afghanistan, spotlight the critical problem of failed states: countries where governments have all but collapsed, basic services go unprovided and terrorism and criminality reign unchecked-or even abetted-by a corrupt and predatory state. The authors do a fine job in emphasizing the centrality of a strong, accountable state in addressing poverty and underdevelopment. Unfortunately, their analysis suffers from its heavy reliance on management theory. Abstractions (such as "the power of networks," "flows" of information and capital, "webs of value creation") and business-school truisms ("underlying a sound management system is an effective supply-chain management") litter their turgid discussion. Fixated on New Economy conceits, they say little about the crucial task of quelling violence and lawlessness; instead they dwell on globalization-oriented development strategies drawn from Ireland, Singapore, Oregon and other regions that are not failed states. (Fatuously, they even liken Sudan's travails to those of troubled conglomerate Tyco International.) The authors do offer a persuasive critique of the ill-conceived, incoherent "aid complex" run by the U.N. and other agencies, which, they argue, undermines and supersedes weak states instead of stabilizing them. Aid officials could learn from these insights, but they don't amount to a comprehensive fix-it. (May)
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