Lady First

The World of First Lady Sarah Polk

By: Amy S. Greenberg

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

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 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 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.

©2019 Amy S. Greenberg (P)2019 Recorded Books

Superb!

A perfect match of narrator (Suzanne Toren) to the biography of Mrs. James K. Polk. This beautifully written biography by Amy S. Greenberg held my curiosity and listening pleasure from beginning to end. Highly recommended!

Remember the Ladies

An excellent correction to the clipped and biased ‘history’ re Jacksonian Democracy and the Polk Admin.

Thucydides revised Herodotus, thus all good history is revision.

If you need Polk to be a hero and Sarah to be quiet and ‘know her place’, move along.

However, if you want to lift some of the fog of the past and get a window into how life was actually lived—-this is a great example.