Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty

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Summary: America's Own "War and Peace"
Review: Based on exhaustive research and much new information and filled with period detail, this book is a fascinating portrait of Martha Washington, her two husbands, her epileptic daughter and feckless son, her grandchildren, slaves, her part-African half-sister, her plantation homes, the winter camps of the Revolution and the first presidential mansions. At the same time it traces many of the complex social, political, and economic developments of the earliest years of Virginia Colony, from Jamestown until the revolution and beyond, highlighting the issues of slavery, trade with the British mother country and plantation life in the New World and links them with the growing political tensions which arose with the Stamp Acts and, eventually, the American Revolution. It provides superb insights into a turbulent period of American history, when thirteen English colonies in North America severed themselves from control by the English king and parliament and began the laborious process of establishing a new form of republican government with no precedents to guide them.

Bryan wears her scholarship lightly, however, cleverly weaving Martha's personal story through the issues and events of the times, quoting from letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts of the period as well as from the memoirs of Martha's Custis grandchildren, little-known anecdotes, and oral traditions. She examines the partnership of George and Martha Washington, America's first "power couple," making the interesting point that had Washington not married the widowed Martha Custis, he might never have become the leading military and political figure of his age. It highlights Martha's little-known contributions to the war effort which made her enormously popular with the long-suffering, ragged, and hungry soldiers of the Continental army, who cheered her as "Lady Washington" and called her a "gallant trooper".

It also examines Martha's invaluable role as the Nation's first official hostess, and the dilemmas she faced in the early days of George's presidency over how to give the two adored grandchildren she was raising a normal life in the presidential mansion and how the wife of the head of the new republic ought to dress, entertain, or receive visitors in a manner which conveyed the dignity of the fledgling country she represented yet which avoided the appearance of behaving in "queenly fashion".

Martha's unflagging support for her husband and her success in public life reflected well on him, and it is interesting that so important a role as Martha played at Washington's side has received so little public recognition. In keeping with one of the discrete obituaries written when Martha died two and a half years after George, Martha Washington has been forgotten in "the silence of respectful grief." Bryan's book, published to mark the 200th anniversary of Martha's death, finally sets the record straight.

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Summary: I am a feminist,ardent anti-racist; I am not enjoying this
Review: I have not finished this book yet; I will. And I am enjoying much of the historical and social background -- but Bryan's need to repeat certain 'facts' verges on perseverism. Sometimes, she even acknowledges that she has said the same thing before. Then why say it? Do we not have memories when we read?

The 'scholarship' is quite specious -- undocumented 'facts,' episodes and experiences of Martha Washington that are pure supposition.

The book starts as an interesting concept but is becoming an annoying and repetitive hypothesis.

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Summary: Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty
Review: I never realized what a central figure Martha Washington was in our country's history until I read this book. The author, Helen Bryan, does a superb job of uncovering Martha Washington's complex and intelligent character, in a fresh perspective and voice. Anyone interested in colonial life, women's studies, the American Revolution, or just an entertaining read, should pick up this book.

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Summary: More than a biography!
Review: This book was a wonderful insight into America's "first" First Lady. Not only did the book delve into Martha's life, it painted a picture of the times in which she lived. I learned more about the period and slavery than I thought I would ~ very well written. My favorite part was learning more about her first marriage to Daniel Parke Custis. Background is everything and most biographies lack it ~ this book doesn't. Read it and learn.

Rating:
Summary: I am a feminist,ardent anti-racist; I am not enjoying this
Review: This book was a wonderful insight into America's "first" First Lady. Not only did the book delve into Martha's life, it painted a picture of the times in which she lived. I learned more about the period and slavery than I thought I would ~ very well written. My favorite part was learning more about her first marriage to Daniel Parke Custis. Background is everything and most biographies lack it ~ this book doesn't. Read it and learn.

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Summary: High School Review
Review: This is a fascinating view of a woman who has been stereotyped throughout history as a grandmotherly type, comfortable and full of fluff as as a pillow, when in actuality Martha Washington was a far more complex, interesting,and strong, person than we have been led to believe. This book has been well researched and gives a good account of what it was like to have lived in this time period. I teach at an all girls' school and we are considering it for summer reading. We are interested in our students studying about powerful, strong , dynamic women. Helen Bryan's book certainly gives us a new and richer perspective on an old icon of American history.

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Summary: Highly compelling and thoughtful review
Review: This is a very depressing book. Ms. Bryan has done a commendable job of research, but the sum total falls way short of its goal. As someone once wrote, "History is a foreign country. They do things differently there." This author plows diligently ahead, ignoring the fact that moral or ethical comparisons with persons who lived centuries ago with the mores of modern times makes a rather uncomfortable fit. Calling George Washington "a good ole boy" may be a clever way of saying he was an ignorant bumpkin, but not too many educated people are willing to view Washington's complex character through such a narrow prism. And why the almost pathological focus on slavery? Does Ms. Bryan, born a Virginian, suffer some type of guilt complex? The 18th century was different from modern times in so many ways, you easily could write a book on that subject alone. I just don't see the point in trying to assassinate history while attempting to write about figures who dwell there. The truly great history writers have all had a certain reverence for history itself and a sympathy for the heroes and villains who occupy it. Ms. Bryan seems only to have a single minded politically correct version which she has written with the coldly calculating mind which only a lawyer could bring to bear.