First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies

I poured through First Women with an obsessive attitude. I devoured all of the information about the first ladies from Jackie to Michelle (I read the hardcover and therefore did not read the afterward about Melania). First Ladies includes glimpses into the lives of the following ladies: Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Rosalind Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush & Michelle Obama with a few illusions to Mamie Eisenhower and the first truly modern first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.

I’ve always had my personal favorites, Jackie, Nancy, Hillary & Michelle, and the others I really didn’t know much about. My favorite line emphasizes the regal aspect of the Kennedys, when Grace Kelly’s show more daughter, and real life princess, Princess Caroline, refers to Caroline Kennedy as Princess Caroline Kennedy. I’ve always been fascinated by Jackie and so learning more about her thrilled me. Learning more about Rosalind, Pat & Barbara, who just recently pasted away, was also enlightening and enlivening.

Each chapter is divided by topic, not by first lady as I anticipated. This was mostly helpful, though occasionally confusing. Brower has a penchant to use lots of pronouns, which means I would often lose track of which first lady she would be referring to. Additionally, her primary source in regards to Michelle Obama was clearly her hair dresser and every time Michelle enters the narrative, Brower feels the need to emphasize, repeatedly, that Michelle did not want to be first lady. Over and over again – we get it, she didn’t want to be there. It seemed like the life of Michelle was shunted aside in favor of Lady Bird and Nancy particularly.

Because of this, what I feel was an, extreme oversight of the value of the first lady beloved by the country, I did not have the most favorable opinion of the book, and yet, I couldn’t stop reading. show less

One of the things that struck me immediately about how First Women is written is that it is incredibly biased. It becomes quickly evident which First Ladies Kate Andersen Brower liked, which ones she didn’t like, and which traits in them she respected. She gives the greatest credit to the First Women who focused on their children, family, and supporting their husbands first and foremost.

In a book that really should be a celebration of feminine dignity and power, it feels petty and small. It cast a shadow over the entire book for me. Brower mentioned multiple times how Jackie O. or Betty Ford or Nancy Regan were their husband’s greatest supporters and “her husband this” or “her husband that”. … The framework for these show more women’s stories felt outdated and failed to credit them as individuals, instead chaining accomplishments to those related to their husbands or children. Every mention of Michelle Obama was that she hated the White House, created fatal etiquette mistakes, and made problems for the staff and her husband by being unhappy. Similarly, Hillary Clinton’s narrative mostly discusses her support of Bill or raising Chelsea, only mentioning her career as an example of First Women on “both sides of the spectrum”.

While I am not close enough to any of these women to claim whether or not Brower’s views are accurate, it does color her narrative. Because I was still interested in the subject, I persevered and tried to read between the lines and ignore the ugly shadow. Brower’s personal commentary tainted the non-fiction in a way that was impossible to completely ignore, and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Ultimately, Brower showed the greatest respect for those first ladies who were graceful or sophisticated. She says kind things about Ladybird Johnson, Jacqueline Onassis-Kennedy, and Betty Ford. She uses Hillary Clinton’s words to defend Nancy Reagan’s extravagant china purchase ($200,000 for a complete set of china for the White House)… and she criticizes the “Marie-Antoinette” expenses Michelle Obama caused when she family took a brief vacation. … Honestly, it is hard to talk about any of the things I learned about these other First Ladies without mentioned some sort of side-comment Brower made about Michelle Obama. The one kind thing she says was that Michelle was the only one since Jackie who came closest to becoming a fashion icon. Not in the same caliber, of course, but there is a slight nod of respect to this one small accomplishment. Hillary Rodham Clinton, additionally, is criticized repeatedly for her lack of femininity and not changing her last name, including blaming her in this way for some of Bill Clinton’s early losses.

Since Jackie O., First Women have all had causes that the Office of the First Lady pursues while in the office. While the projects lately have focused on children (both Bush administrations fought for childhood literacy, Michelle Obama’s focus on childhood obesity, Melania Trump’s cyberbullying) others have focused on mental health (Rosalynn Carter), drug awareness (Nancy Reagan), women’s rights (Betty Ford) and others. I really, really would have liked to hear more about these projects and each of the first women and their cultural contributions. The content focuses more on their relationships with one another, the White House staff, and their adjustments to living in the White House itself and under the lens of the country. There’s a little conversation about some of their relationships with one another, and those moments are nice, but event planning and garden tours are very low on the list of contributions these important women have made to our society.

Organizationally, First Women is all over the place. Since the book opened with a visit between Hillary Clinton and Jackie Kennedy, it was clear early on that this book would not be presented chronologically. Topics were chaotic as well, being explored with one First Lady, then the book would move on to something else, then it would circle back again to that conversation again with another First Lady.

While this book isn’t boring, and there’s an appeal to it as a way to access these women, the bias shades the stories and their contributions are not outlined as clearly as they could have been. While I wouldn’t tell interested parties to avoid First Women, I don’t know that I would recommend it either. There are moments of interest, but I just wasn’t crazy about the formation of the narrative. Perhaps it was too broad a topic, and going forward I think I would seek out individual biographies rather than a collection like this one. show less

Really an excellent read, covering the First Ladies from Jacqueline Kennedy (& a bit about Mamie Eisenhower) to Michelle Obama. Some not suprising, some altering my perceptions. To wit, Mamie Eisenhower, upon receiving a request that a wheelchair be provided for Mrs. Kennedy, who had had a c-section two weeks earlier, ordered it be hidden in a closet & not brought out unless Mrs. K asked for it. Which of course, she didn't. -- Mrs. LBJ strikes me as the nicest of the group (although the short duration of the Kennedy and Ford terms limited insights into those first ladies. In any case, LBJ could be, and often was to his wife, a jerk. She, OTOH, is thoughtful and just plain nice, and she reached out to all of the others, with visits and show more notes, and they all liked her. Michelle Obama hates the White House, is very prickly about her First Ladyship, her own life, and can't wait to get out and shop at Target. She comes across at really not a very nice person, but maybe that's just me. The others, all of them, had some sense of their position, and their husband's, and took care, in their own ways, to burnish that. Or at least not denigrade it. MO does not. All in all, definitely a recommended read. show less

This book provided such a great look into the lives of some of the modern first ladies. I found it extremely entertaining and informative. I do have to point out that since there's little access to Michelle Obama that some of the anonymous informants could be a little biased perhaps since most of the information gathered on her seems like it was more negative than anything else. Overall I enjoyed the read.

A really fascinating look at what it means to be the first lady to the president of the United States. The relationships between these women is very interesting. It was a sneak peek into who they really were (or are) as people. I could not put this down. It is very well written.

Great read and so interesting. I did have a hard time because it was linear and followed topics ( motherhood ect it was linear within each topic though) so it felt like a lot of back and forth and there so much historical information, but I found the stories and the women fascinating.

I'm not finishing this. I'm well over the '50 pages', and I'm fed up with the bad grammar and the lack of any perceptible organization of the matter. Plus, I find I'm just not really interested. Maybe if the author had concentrated on one woman at a time, but it feels like random gossip columns.