商品簡介
The acclaimed author of A Wicked War now gives us the little-known story of Sarah Polk: remarkably influential First Lady and brilliant master of the art of high politics--a crucial but unrecognized figure in the history of American feminism.
At the same time as the women's rights convention was taking place at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, First Lady Sarah Childress Polk was wielding influence unprecedented for a woman. Yet, while history remembers the women of the convention, it has all but forgotten Sarah Polk. Now, Amy S. Greenberg brings her story into vivid focus. We see her father raising her on the frontier to discuss politics and business as an equal with men. We see her use savvy and charm to help her brilliant but unlikable husband ascend to the White House. And we see her exercising truly extraordinary power as First Lady: quietly manipulating elected officials, shaping foreign policy, directing a campaign in support of America's expansionist war against Mexico. Greenberg makes clear that though the Polk marriage was a partnership of equals, Sarah firmly opposed the feminist movement's demands for then far-reaching equality. A riveting biography--and a revelation of Sarah Polk's complicated but essential part in American feminism.
作者簡介
Amy S. Greenberg is George Winfree Professor of History and Women's Studies at Penn State University. She is a leading scholar of Manifest Destiny and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society. Her previous books include A Wicked War and Manifest Manhood.
