The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fa..., Thomas Fleming
The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fa..., Thomas Fleming
1 Rating(s)
List: $27.95 | Sale: $19.57
Club: $13.97

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

Author: Thomas Fleming

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 17 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/17/2010


Synopsis

With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming offers a compelling, intimate look at the foundersGeorge Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madisonand the women who played essential roles in their lives. From hottempered 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' 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 their reconciliation; and how the brilliant Madison was jilted by a flirtatious fifteenyearold 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 the founding fathers strove to reconcile their private and public lives, often beset by a media every bit as gossipseeking 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. All the more remarkable, then, that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbandsand, in some cases, their country.

About Thomas Fleming

Thomas Fleming is a distinguished historian and acclaimed author of more than fifty books.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Simon on January 19, 2022

You go girl! There were some high times had in presidential circles through the early years of the American experience and adage substantiated that behind every great man .. a great woman too, rides that wave, a new form of republic pushing the boundaries of individual rights and freedom of expressi......more

Goodreads review by John on August 05, 2016

Founding Fathers and their political histories are embedded in us from our earliest days of learning. Through each year of our education, the legendary feats, the leadership, the courage of these men become memorized and recited. They did forge our nation, after all. However, with all those high sch......more

Goodreads review by Fergie on July 30, 2010

An interesting take on the Founding Fathers and their ladies. The only complaint I would have was that, at times, I found the author to be biased in his treatment of his subjects. For instance, he seemed to take a harder stance against John Adams while spending an extreme amount of time defending th......more

Goodreads review by William on October 25, 2020

For the curious: the considerably charming character of our capital's cardinal couples! I read this highly readable book in an effort to update my own book on George Washington’s Liberty Key (Mount Vernon’s Bastille Key). As with Fleming’s other books, this one was chock full of interesting facts. On......more