In these two books, political journalists Cokie Roberts and Bonnie Angelo contribute to our understanding of women who have influenced the U.S. as the mothers, sisters, and daughters of the country’s founding men and mothers of more recent presidents.

Such books are an important contribution to our understanding of the nation’s leadership. I found value in reading both books. I am keeping book books (I am one of those readers who keep valued books I’m read – because I value the books and because I want visitors to my residence to see the books that have helped shape my own thinking….).

In Founding Mothers, I learned historical trivia such as Ben Franklin’s lifelong correspondence that he sustained with his favorite sister Jane Franklin.

When writers speculate about what their biographical subjects must have thought in specific situations, I sometimes wonder how a biographer came to think that the people they wrote about would have thought X or Y in a given situation. Not so in the case of Bonnie Angelo’s First Mothers. Bonnie Angelo’s speculations resonate as viable and insightful thoughts into what First Mothers likely thought in specific situations. I also learned that all the presidents whose mothers are written about in this book spoke more about how their mothers influenced them than about how their fathers influenced them.

These two books are both worth reading.

Bibliophile and would-be-antiquarian Kim Burkhardt reviews books at The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!).