This article is the last in a series on First Ladies and ancestral identities. It began with Michelle Obama and has included Jacqueline Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Florence Harding, Pat Nixon, Hillary Clinton and Edith Wilson. In 1953, when the White… Read More ›
The Eisenhowers
Ike, Irving, Mamie & Merman: The Hit Song Which Elected a President
It was like a double-date between the entertainment and political world and while it resulted in helping a Republican, it had all been prompted by a Democrat. There’s No Business Like Show Business, Easter Parade, White Christmas: these are just… Read More ›
The Munching President
Some seek to preserve their dignity. Others to ensure that they seem like one of the people. However gregarious and easy they seem in public, Presidents are always highly self-consciously aware of how they appear in public and who is… Read More ›
The White House Easter Egg Roll: Traditions, First Families & A Day for Dogs
At next Monday’s annual White House Easter Egg Roll, the American public will again get an annual chance to enter the White House grounds and perhaps catch a live glimpse of the President, First Lady, First Children and…First Dog. The one… Read More ›
When a First Lady Battles a President’s Chief of Staff
The conflict between First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s first Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel exposed in the book The Obamas by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor may offer new insights into the popular presidential wife’s political acumen… Read More ›
The Four Best Presidential Pumpkin Pies: From the first Adams and Johnson, Ike & Reagan
When it comes to Presidents, the quality of political policy is entirely inconsistent with that of their pumpkin pie. There’s not even a preference for pumpkin over mince, for example, among those regularly rated as either the “best” (like… Read More ›
Mamie & Mame, The Rosalind Russell – Mamie Eisenhower Friendship
One was First Lady of the Fifties known for her pink carnations and sassy asides named Mamie, the other a compassionate, wisecracking actress whose most famous role was named Mame. It’s hardly a wonder that Mamie Eisenhower and Rosalind Russell… Read More ›
The Inside on the Ex-President: Always Centered
Far too many readers assume history is a quaintly irrelevant retelling of wars or migrations or depressions, and far too many such books bear that out by forgetting that it is ultimately individual human beings who direct society’s fate. Among… Read More ›
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