Synopses & Reviews
A compelling, intimate look at the founders—George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison—and the women who played essential roles in their lives
With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and often partners in fame. We learn of the youthful Washington's tortured love for the coquettish Sarah Fairfax, wife of his close friend; of Franklin's two "wives," one in London and one in Philadelphia; of Adams's long absences, which required a lonely, deeply unhappy Abigail to keep home and family together for years on end; of Hamilton's adulterous betrayal of his wife and then their reconciliation; of how the brilliant Madison was jilted by a flirtatious fifteen-year-old and went on to marry the effervescent Dolley, who helped make this shy man into a popular president. Jefferson's controversial relationship to Sally Hemings is also examined, with a different vision of where his heart lay.
Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as his founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and public, often beset by a media every bit as gossip seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While often brilliant and articulate, the wives of the founding fathers all struggled with the distractions and dangers of frequent childbearing and searing anxiety about infant mortality—Jefferson's wife, Martha, died from complications following labor, as did his daughter. All the more remarkable, then, that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.
Review
"No one understands the Revolutionary Era better. No one brings it to life with such amazing insight and intimacy." John C. McManus, author of The Deadly Brotherhood
Synopsis
In The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, new from Smithsonian Books, historian Thomas Fleming, author of The Perils of Peace, offers a fresh look at the critical role of women in the lives of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison. Fleming nimbly takes readers through a great deal of early American history, as our founding fathers struggle to reconcile the private and public — and often deal with a media every bit as gossip-seeking and inflammatory as ours today.
Synopsis
From popular historian Tom Fleming comes an intimate look at America's founders -- George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison -- and the women who played critical roles in their lives and careers. Like public figures of today, they struggled to reconcile personal relationships with public duty, and were forced to deal with a media that was just as intrusive and inflammatory as it is today.
Fleming examines the youthful Washington's tortured love for the married Sarah Fairfax; Franklin's two "wives;" Hamilton's betrayal of his wife and their reconciliation; and how Madison was jilted by a fifteen year old, years before he met and married Dolley Payne Todd. The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers covers the early history of the United States from a different perspective -- one that presents the Founding Fathers as human beings with fears, hopes and hearts that could be broken.
Thomas Fleming is the author of more than 40 books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Perils of Peace. He has been president of the Society of American Historians and the PEN American Center. Mr. Fleming is a frequent guest on C-Span, PBS, A&E, and the History Channel.
"Thomas Fleming is one of our most interesting scholars of the Revolutionary period, and in his insightful latest work he does not disappoint ... A significant achievement." -- Jay Winik, author of The Great Upheaval and April 1865
--Peter R. Henriques, author of REALISTIC VISIONARY: A PORTRAIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON
About the Author
Thomas Fleming is the author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently, The Perils of Peace. He has been the president of the Society of American Historians and of PEN American Center. Mr. Fleming is a frequent guest on C-SPAN, PBS, A&E, and the History Channel. He lives in New York City.