Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second bestseller, From This Day Forward, written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history, including the romance of John and Abigail Adams. Now Roberts returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families -- and their country -- proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it.

While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Roberts brings us the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their businesses, raised their children, provided them with political advice, and made it possible for the men to do what they did. The behind-the-scenes influence of these women -- and their sometimes very public activities -- was intelligent and pervasive.

Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived.

Social history at its best, Founding Mothers unveils the drive, determination, creative insight, and passion of the other patriots, the women who raised our nation. Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on.

I appreciated the notes and the cast of characters including names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the signers of the Constitution, the players in the new government, women writers of the period, and famous soldiers and statesmen during the revolutionary war, which are included in the back of the book.

Excerpts from many letters are included and are so beautifully written.Let your imagination wander as you read vivid accounts of the sacrifices made by families who wanted independence from England - the yellow fever and smallpox epidemics, the building of a military, the contributions made by exceptional women such as Abigail Adams and Martha Washington, as well as Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren, Sarah Livingston Jay, and many others portrayed here.

Cokie writes as if she is having fun telling us so many interesting facts about the "founding families", and I had fun learning more about them and relearning early American history.
The true story of Benedict Arnold and his wife was enlightening as well as the character of Alexander Hamilton.

You will enjoy learning about influential women in this book.
Cokie has inserted some of her own remarks to lighten up the picture, and she carefully recounts the contributions of each state as they represented the new government at that time; the
conflicts with the British,the alliance with the French, as well as inevitable partisan politics.


I liked the original better   April 21, 2004
 35 out of 62 found this review helpful

I liked the original book, Founding Mothers: Women of America in the Revolutionary Era by Linda Grant DePauw 1975 better. (Wonder why Amazon is not offering it...)
DePauw gave a detailed portrait of all women of that era, including blacks and native Americans, Loyalist women and much more about the time and culture for women. Roberts just gives us a glimpse of the only culture she knows, that of elitist wealthy politicians' wives and daughters, like herself.


Founding Mothers   April 20, 2004
 29 out of 53 found this review helpful

Cokie Roberts isn't showing us anything we men didn't already know. Behind every good man is even a better woman in most cases. I think we all know how much our women can change a way a man can think. But all in all Cokie tells the story about some of these women and reminds us all just what part our women have played through the years and every day of all of our lives. Its a good read, just don't tell your wife about it, the stories might go to her head. Larry Hobson- Author-"The Day Of The Rose"


Another clip job from Cokie   May 2, 2004
 25 out of 67 found this review helpful

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation is a good topic. And though many other writers (of both genders) have covered the terrain, the topic was compelling enough to make me give the book a chance despite the "author."
Like the works of too many television pundits, Cokie Roberts's "book" reads like a Power Point presentation. Calling it an "overview" would be granting it more stature than it deserves. Though an author who gleans previously well noted work done by others can't be expected to come across any new discoveries, Roberts doesn't even offer the reader an independent thought.
The "book" has all the usual "depth" one would expect from Roberts. Perhaps as an elementary school primer the "book" could benefit some readers? The rest of us will read pulled factoids we already knew (or should have) and sweeping generalities courtesy of Cokie while we wonder why this "journalist" continues to produce books? Does she hold stock in the timber industry? She can't truly believe that these slight clip-jobs will be taken seriously by book readers. ("Author" Roberts seems to exist to satisfy the occasional curiosity of the non-reading public.)
She's no historian, true. But to call these assembled bits of previously published facts intersped with the usual generalizations by Roberts "books" does a huge disservice to authors everywhere.
Maybe it plays better as a book-on-tape? That wouldn't be surprising since Roberts relationship with the written word can best be termed molestation.
Here's a topic Cokie Roberts might want to consider for her next clip job: the contributions from women of her era to journalism.
Maybe undertaking a "book" like that -- printing "factoids" on Andrea Mitchell, Lesley Stahl, Linda Ellerbee, Carole Simpson and, yes, even Jessica Savitch -- would demonstrate to her how trivial her own career has been. Heck, even the much maligned Connie Chung has moments to be proud of. "Commentator" Cokie Roberts has nothing of note, despite being one of the few "journalists" to have such a wide reach -- op-eds (with her husband Steve), long running gigs at ABC & NPR, until recently the co-host of This Week and a regular spot on most talk programs as 'Washington expert.'
In the broadcast medium, Cokie Roberts can continue to be a "commentator" (or windbag, depending upon one's point of view) but let's not confuse clip-jobs with "books," nor mistake magpies for "authors."