Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History

I saw Kati Marton interviewed on one of the Sunday morning news shows recently and later tracked down her book to learn more about her fascinating topic - how the office and the marriages of US presidents influence one another, for both good and ill. I have always been interested in first ladies, particularly in terms of how they balanced their very public lives with their responsibilities as parent and spouse.It seems quite true that once a person becomes president (so far only men) he becomes public property, with everyone demanding something from him most minutes of his life. While this is to be expected and certainly doesn't come as a surprise to a candidate once he's in office, it seems essential that he have someone who cares about him as a person. Someone who has his back, so to speak, and keeps an eye out for his health and personal well-being. More often than not, that person is his wife. Some of them were more successful than others in watching out for their husbands and a few, notably Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, also managed to carve out important roles for themselves.Kati Marton's profiles are well researched and full of interesting little details that help the reader see the first ladies as real people, with ambitions and emotions just like everyone else. Marton does not inject a particular political perspective into her work. I found myself quite liking most of the women featured in this book, including those not of my own political party.Hidden Power is well written and easy to read. I highly recommend it.

The reader will be engrossed from the first page to the last. Reads like a novel; but is factual. A real page-turner. I offer slight criticism with the overall scheme of the book: not including the Gilded Age presidents alluded to in the introduction. I agree that Mamie Eisenhower and Bess Truman did not play significant roles along with their husbands; but Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, and Nellie Taft did influence their husbands....and significantly so. I hope that when a revision is done, the author will include chapters on these three presidential couples.The reader will be "hooked" after reading the first chapter on Woodrow Wilson and his second wife. Its refreshing to find that Mrs. Marton, the author, did not gloss over the cover-up that Edith Wilson perpetuated with Dr. Cary Grayson, Wilson's White House physician. Every stone is turned over, including the little-known fact that Grayson attended to Edith during her first marriage to Mr. Galt when she had a miscarriage; this is an important connection often over-looked by historians who have preferred to over-look the Wilsons' peccadilloes, including his affairs with the Princeton professor's wife and Mary Peck.Readers will be intrigued to learn about Woodrow's sharing of secret intelligence codes and allowing his wife to use them and the State Department documents which arrived encoded.The author does a good job explaining why it was Edith who turned Woodrow against his closest advisor, Colonel House, his personal secretary, Mr. Tumulty, and Secretary of State Lansing, and even Vice President Marshall...all of whom he desperately needed while desperately ill.Any serious student of presidential history needs this volume in their library. The reader will learn how a woman with only two years of formal education ended up secretly running the country in one of the most devastating cover-ups in our nation's history. Unlike the personal memoirs of Edith Wilson and Dr. Grayson, this is not a self-serving account.Not wishing to spoil the rest of the book by revealing too much, the reader will be engrossed with chapters on the other presidential couples to the present day. This is one book not to be missed.

This is a book by a woman, about women, for women, mostly. It describes through these specific grand experiences the frustration and uncertainty that American women have felt for decades...the cultural restrictions, the political awkwardness, the personal adjustments, the pressure to be something other than what one might in other circumstances choose to be. The roles these first ladies chose made the men around them for one reason or another sit up and take notice. And yet the first ladies all had to change themselves, adapt their behavior, manipulate those around them, in ways that men do not have to. I found the author's analyses insightful and clever. I've no idea if they're correct or not, but they did help me to better appreciate women's position in a more generalized way. It's not a matter of sharing or not the political beliefs of the first ladies or the author--this is not relevant to the point. I recommend the book.

Hidden Power by Kati Marton was a fascinating and revealing look into presidential marriages. These marriages not only shaped our country's history but also relected the culture at the time. It was a real page turner that was hard to put down. This is said by one who usually reads mysteries and thrillers and a few biographies! This book was written in a way to keep your attention and want to know more. It tells so much more about the inner workings of the govenment and the White House and the first families that we never learned in history class.Thanks for enlightening me, and offering this book used at an excellant price! I saw the author interviewed on televion and immediately searched Amazon for the book.Carole Skeen

Kudos for shipping and the condition of the book. I found this a book you can pick up anytime because of the different wives' stories.Good delivery time. Perfect description.

The book is ok, but very repetitive...within each chapter they go over the history of the Presidents and the influence of their wives by repeating the same words but in a different context. I am glad I read it though and it did give me some insight into the demands and pressures on our Presidents and how they definitely needed the support of their spouses.

I liked the fact that Ms Marton didn't seem to have a bias for either party. Makes this year's election more interesting to follow.