#capital dames

[frombooktobook]

During the reading of the proclamation "every kind of demonstration and gesticulations was going on. Men squealed, women fainted, dogs barked, white and colored people shook hands, songs were sung, and by this time cannons began to fire at the navy-yard." In a heartbreaking recital of the horrors that would be no more--"no more auction blocks, no more separation of parents and children"--Turner celebrated the scene, "Nothing like it will ever be seen again in this life."

Capital Dames - Cokie Roberts

[frombooktobook]

September 17, 1862, still stands as the bloodiest single day in American military history.

Capital Dames - Cokie Roberts

[frombooktobook]

[universitybookstore]

Three great new books on what it means to be a woman in Washington, DC.  From NPR contributor Cokie Roberts comes Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington 1848 - 1868, from Harper.  From Public Affairs and C-Span comes Susan Swain’s First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women.  And finally, Alfred A. Knopf and biographer Peter Slevin give us Michelle Obama: A Life.

[nprbooks]

Their influence was indirect not just with their own husbands, but with other men in power. So they would go to the secretary of the Navy and say, 'Oh, it's just terrible so-and-so is being deployed to Italy and his wife is pregnant. You can't do that!' And the secretary of the Navy would say, 'Yes, ma'am, I can't do that. You're right.' And that happened all the time. These women were lobbied by favor-seekers or bill-passer-seekers or just individuals. ... They would be the person who had the ear of the powerful man more than anyone else.

Author (and NPR contributor) Cokie Roberts on the secret power wielded by wives of presidents, senators and secretaries of war in Civil War Washington. Her new book is called Capital Dames.

Meet The 'Capital Dames,' Civil War Washington's Secret Power Brokers

[womenruntheworld]

NPR's Steve Inskeep interviewed Cokie Roberts about her new book "Capital Dames". Focusing on the Civil War era, Roberts' work shares details of the lives of 19th century women, such as Mary Todd Lincoln, and others who were married to powerful/influential men. The wives of senators, cabinet members, and potential presidential candidates had a "covert" ambition about them. These women used their relationship with these important/influential men in order to sway their decisions on certain matters. (Roberts shares an example of a woman who persuaded a Navy official not to station a certain man in Italy bc his wife was pregnant. This woman's pleas swayed the official's decision and the Naval officer in question was not sent abroad.) This "covert" ambition, as Roberts has dubbed it, is something 21st century women can identify/sympathize with and appreciate.