History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

America's First Families (HC) : An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House

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America's First Families
Enjoyable light historical reading
Oh, What a Lovely Piece of Work This Is!
Entertaining look at White House hsitory

America's First Families (HC) : An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House
Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743203038

Book Description

Packed with more than 300 photographs from archives and private collections -- many published here for the first time -- entertaining anecdotes, political analysis, the dynamics of family relationships, and behind-the-scenes gossip, America's First Families offers the first up-close look at the families -- from John and Abigail Adams in 1800 to Bill and Hillary Clinton -- who have intrigued and entranced the American public for two centuries.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony opens the door to the world's most famous residence to reveal life as it was actually lived there. He takes readers into the heart of loyalties and estrangements, and the emotional pressures that politics brings to bear upon the forty White House families, from their arrivals to their "notices to vacate." Readers will enjoy an unprecedented tour of the previously unseen private rooms as used and decorated by each family. Revealed too are the personal proclivities of the presidents and how their families both sustained them through public crises and were used for political advantage. They'll get a firsthand look at the preparations for White House weddings and other occasions; meet the parents and children of the presidents -- as well as eccentric relatives; and discover the patterns of working, resting, and relaxing that shaped the nuts and bolts of family life.

A magnificent combination of visual delights and insider information, America's First Families is an irresistible invitation to spend some time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Customer Reviews:

America's First Families.......2007-01-19

This is a fascinating book. It is a wonderful compendium of trivia, probably not available in any other volume. It contains a wonderful assortment of pictures of First Families, some of which have never before been published. The book is well organized into chapters detailing various aspects of the Presidential families' lives and activities. for me, one of its prime attractions is that it does not include the politics or issues of the President's era.
At times, it is a little confusing, because the author skips from one family to another rather abruptly, so it requires a little getting used to in order to follow the narrative.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the social and "human" aspects of the White House families.

Enjoyable light historical reading.......2001-04-10

This book gives an insight into the private lives of the first families. We learn about their extended families, hobbies, illnesses, preparations for leaving the White House when their terms are completed, etc. The pictures are what really makes this book great. We see Lyndon Johnson in bed with his wife watching tv and we see the older George Bush in bed too (can you imagine Nixon or Clinton letting down his guard like this?). We see Gerald Ford in his bathrobe. If you always wanted to see such a sight, there is a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt in a bathing suit and a rare photo of Franklin in shorts with his polio ravaged legs exposed to the camera. We see painful personal moments such as the famous photo of Nixon hugging his daughter Julie when he made the decision to resign. In short this is, at times, a very rare personal and intimate glimpse into the lives of the first families. I enjoyed it and recommend it highly.

Oh, What a Lovely Piece of Work This Is!.......2001-01-12

I have been fortunate enough to read Mr. Anthony's brilliant "First Ladies" mini-opuses, and highly looked forward to this epic on the lives of our First Families. I sat for three hours stright with an almost constant smile on my face as I ran through the pages. What an amazing acheivement Mr. Anthony has pulled together! I can only imagine the painstaking research needed to find out the tidbits sprinkled throughout. There is so much information in this novel that it almost boggles the mind at times and is a bit overwhelming. I wondered if everything was sinking in, when I saw Mr. Anthony speak at the Richard Nixon library on CSPAN one night recounting the tales found here. Every story he told was instantly recalled and sentences finished before explaining. The sheer knowledge that one can gain from reading this novel is tremendous. (Where else can you find a list of President's favorite movies? By Reagan selecting Rambo, it does nothing but prove what a complete and utter moron we had occupying the White House under his reign).....Point proven further....When listing President's favorite reading options, Mr Anthony lays out beautiful examples of this. President Clinton enjoys biographies of his predecessors, Eisenhower military biographies and TR, anything he could get his hands on. Reagan? Newspaper comics.....I shall leave my review at that.

Entertaining look at White House hsitory.......2000-11-13

I purchased this book yesterday and I can't put it down. It is filled with great pictures and stories of the forty-one famlies who lived in the White House. This is a great source of presidential trivia and provides a human element to the most famous family in America. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the lives of the presidents.

First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War

Average customer rating:

Objectivity thoroughly lacking
Interesting subject, boring book
LONG OVERDUE BIOGRAPHY OF A "FIRST RATE" LADY
Oustanding Civil War biography!
Biography of Varina Davis

First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War
Joan E. Cashin
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674022947

Book Description

When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy, his wife, Varina Howell Davis, reluctantly became the First Lady. For this highly intelligent, acutely observant woman, loyalty did not come easily: she spent long years struggling to reconcile her societal duties to her personal beliefs. Raised in Mississippi but educated in Philadelphia, and a long-time resident of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Davis never felt at ease in Richmond. During the war she nursed Union prisoners and secretly corresponded with friends in the North. Though she publicly supported the South, her term as First Lady was plagued by rumors of her disaffection.

After the war, Varina Davis endured financial woes and the loss of several children, but following her husband's death in 1889, she moved to New York and began a career in journalism. Here she advocated reconciliation between the North and South and became friends with Julia Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant. She shocked many by declaring in a newspaper that it was God's will that the North won the war.

A century after Varina Davis's death in 1906, Joan E. Cashin has written a masterly work, the first definitive biography of this truly modern, but deeply conflicted, woman. Pro-slavery but also pro-Union, Varina Davis was inhibited by her role as Confederate First Lady and unable to reveal her true convictions. In this pathbreaking book, Cashin offers a splendid portrait of a fascinating woman who struggled with the constraints of her time and place.

Customer Reviews:

Objectivity thoroughly lacking.......2007-10-11

A very disappointing book! Written by a feminist, 20th century liberal scholar intent on imposing her 20th century politically correct views on a 19th century subject, the book becomes a parody of what a truly historical biography should be. The author makes no attempt to maintain objectivity and interjects her own opinions, views and beliefs, trying to get the reader to believe that Mrs. Davis was the one who held them. I am truly glad I borrowed this from the library and didn't waste my money.

Interesting subject, boring book.......2007-08-07

The author has thoroughly researched her subject, a most interesting woman, but has concealed her through her own 20th century views on women. Frequently, she refers to Davis' wit and writing style, but rarely gives us a direct quote so we can see for ourselves. She presents her opinion without letting us see how she arrived at it. It reads like a college class lecture from a professor who believes we'll never read the primary sources for ourselves. Mrs. Davis was right: Agnes Strickland would have been a better biographer for her.

LONG OVERDUE BIOGRAPHY OF A "FIRST RATE" LADY.......2007-08-05

For many a year I had searched for a biography on Varina Howell Davis, without success, several novels existed but no biography. Now thanks to Professor Joan E. Cashin the first contemporary biography now resides on my Civil War shelf.

But let's clear up a possible misunderstanding in at least one other review: Varina Howell WAS NOT born a Yankee, she was born an American citizen of Welsh decent at 'The Briars', near NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI, on 7 May 1826. She was very much a woman of the South, though she spent much time in the North due to Jefferson's political career, came to enjoy Washington, D.C., very much, even missed being in the North and Washington during the Civil War, but she felt it her duty as the wife of the president of the C.S.A. to support the Confederate cause. While she may have been ambivalent, she was no traitor to the South's cause. And to her betterment, she never truly seemed to feel any viseral 'hate' many Southerners felt for the so-called 'Yankees' as they incorrectly called all Northerners who were more to the truth, simply Unionists. Some unionists believed in slavery, some did not, however, all still believed in a Union from the 'founding fathers' rather than 'states rights' or nullification.

Though she was unsure of the South's ability to win such a war, she stood by the cause. She was never a Northern spy, as some maliciously gossiped, but had seen and lived in the North, and realistically knew that 22,000,000 northerners existed to only 5,000,000 southerners, being certain the productive ability of the North would eventually overwhelm the capacity of the South. And by year's end of 1864, Varina in much anguish, truly wished the war and its suffering to end in a peaceful outcome. Later, on page 150, Mary Chestnut's words about Varina "Davis's prediction in 1860 that the whole thing would fail" are recalled. She also said Varina's "worst enemies had to grant her the gift of prophecy.

But the book covers much more than just the Civil War years allowing Varina Davis to stand alone as her own woman. And what a woman she was: intelligent, educated, and a woman who was far more and far larger than her times. But like her heroine Mary, Queen of Scots, Varina's life was set upon by death and travail through the war and numerous times after the war. At times she felt she could take no more or that she would go mad, but somehow she always rebounded.

One interesting item Varina mentioned was with Jefferson being blind in one eye and being gone much of the time, she had gotten proficient signing his name, so that many of the Confederate historical documents bearing his signatures, are in fact hers!

Thank you professor for finally bringing this talented and interesting woman to life. Don't miss this exceptional biography.

Why no book club picked this up is only to their shame. This book deserves a wide reading audience

Semper Fi.

Oustanding Civil War biography!.......2007-04-22

This truly marvelous biography is a serious scholarly book about the
educated and very modern, Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederacy.
A born Yankee and a Confederate by marriage, Mrs. Davis struggles
to find her way, caught between being the dutiful wife of Jefferson Davis and
having the conviction that the Confederacy was a lost cause.
In reading this, you will learn as I did, about Varina's northern
friends and her connection to both Mary Lincoln's seamstress
(Elizabeth Keckley) and Julia Grant, Ulysses S. Grant's wife.
The book, a culmination of years and years of research, takes us
through the perils of a lady who didn't lead the life she wanted
and basically endured her marriage to a man who did not fully return her love.
A "must read" for the person who endeavors to know the Civil War, even
though they will find out as I did, that the First Lady of the
Confederacy is a much more interesting study than her much more
famous husband.
Congratulations Professor Cashin for this outstanding book!

Biography of Varina Davis.......2007-03-12

I have always been curious about Varina Davis as so little is written about her. This account has been well researched and is a good read. It struck a chord with me as so many families during the Civil War had to deal with divisions in their families, and this book shows how painful this was for them.

Varina was close to her Northern family, as they supported her when her father was unable to do so from his multiple financial misadventures. Her prominent family was involved in Delaware politics from before the Revolution, and yet she finds herself married to a man who would be the President of the Confederacy. After spending years in Washington DC as a hostess of note, she found it hard to leave some close friends behind. She worked at being a leader of the Confederate Ladies- even though she was greatly criticized for being to outspoken, to well educated, not having a "proper" sense of humor, and not being a classic Southern Beauty. She loved her children and was, along with Jefferson Davis, an overly indulgent parent. She loved her husband, although they had a stained marriage at times, as he also had difficulty dealing with a wife who had opinions that did not always mirror his opinions. She tried to support her husband through her mixed feelings about succession- she was a woman of her times-supporting slavery- seeing no other way to financial security, but would have been much happier if the South had just continued to compromise on issues instead of declaring succession. A difficult place to find yourself as a lady.

I gained a different incite into the Civil War through Ms. Cashin's words and would recommend this to readers interested in the Civil War and Women's History.

America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

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American Royalty
Audio CD
Jacqueline not Jackie
i loved it
So, So

America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Sarah Bradford
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141002204
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Amazon.com

Fresh from her well-received life of Queen Elizabeth II, the English historian and biographer Sarah Bradford turns her hand to America's own answer to royalty, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Painstakingly detailed, impressively fair, the result is the most definitive account yet of a woman who captured the imagination of the American public like no First Lady before or after her. Bradford seems to have interviewed almost everyone who had ever been intimate with Onassis, including George Plimpton, Gore Vidal, Joan Kennedy, and even a few ex-lovers. Most notably of all, Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill speaks with unexpected frankness about the mixture of rivalry and affection that marked their relationship since childhood. Jackie-lovers, take note: this is no hagiography, and its subject certainly comes off as no saint. As gracious as this American icon could be, she also had moments of coldness and even greed, including a particularly shocking moment by the bedside of Ari Onassis's dying son. Yet, in the end, non-airbrushed anecdotes like these only serve to make this most private of public figures even more fascinating. Jackie was, as Bradford writes, "a complex woman of many facets, concealed insecurities and intricate defense mechanisms, a strong urge toward the limelight contrasting with a desire for privacy and concealment.... Behind the mask of beauty and fame lay a shrewd mind, a ruthless judgment of people, antennae finely turned to any sign of pretentiousness or pomposity, and a wry, even raunchy sense of humor." The figure who emerges from subsequent pages is as compelling as the heroine of any novel, and it is to Bradford's credit that she doesn't seem to have fallen completely under her subject's spell. Her approach is sympathetic, but never fawning; candid, but never sensationalistic. For those who are curious not about Jackie's glamour but about its source, America's Queen offers an unprecedented look at the flesh-and-blood woman behind the Camelot myth. --Carlotta DeWitt

Book Description

"Some of the most personally knowledgeable observations about [Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis] that have ever been put into print." (The Boston Globe)

"Compulsively readable." (The Washington Post)

Acclaimed biographer Sarah Bradford explores the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the woman who has captivated the public for more than five decades, in a definitive portrait that is both sympathetic and frank. With an extraordinary range of candid interviews-many with people who have never spoken in such depth on record before-Bradford offers new insights into the woman behind the public persona. She creates a coherent picture out of Jackie's tumultuous and cosmopolitan life-from the aristocratic milieu of Newport and East Hampton to the Greek isles, from political Washington to New York's publishing community. She probes Jackie's privileged upbringing, her highly public marriages, and her roles as mother and respected editor, and includes rare photos from private collections to create the most complete account yet written of this legendary life.

Customer Reviews:

American Royalty.......2006-04-08

Jackie Kennedy was the closest thing that America ever got to home-grown royalty. Her birth and upbringing in New York City, refinement, etiquette, and Olympian cool ... Jackie radiated a deep mystery that remains. She was iconic in her need for privacy and protectiveness of it. A woman of another era who remains enigmatic and unique in her persona ... an American icon who seems both American yet not typical of the United States. A sophisticate, debutant of the year, equestrienne, well-manner, posh Park Avenue social doyenne who intrigued the world until she died in 1994. Fluent in several language, a writer of poetry, political wife, patron of the arts, native New Yorker, and poised like any Queen in Europe. She wasn't perfect but she was Jackie. America may never see another quite like her.

Audio CD.......2006-03-18

My comments concern the narrator of the audio cd who felt that she had to change her voice inflection when she read quotes of various people. She talked in a soft wispery tone when quoting Jackie, however, she continued to use that same voice for any of the females quoted. She then attempted a deeper tone for the male voices. Due to all the voice shifting it was disruptive and the reading did not flow. Since it was a narrative and not a play it would have been more pleasing to the ear if the narrator did the entire reading in her natural voice.

Jacqueline not Jackie.......2005-06-16

It was fantastic to be able to grasp a better understanding of the stoic, graceful beauty that was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It was great to see the different facets of her personality from political darling to yacht hopping party girl. Her desire to control and veneer everything that happened in her life was inspiring. Couldn't put it down, was consistantly interesting throughout.

i loved it.......2005-04-01

such a great discripture on ms Bouvier. Definetly read it if your into grace an poise and want to learn about America's Queen. Sarah gave great description well known facts. The book is just lovely to have around. I being a big fan of jackie O and the Kennedys find this book to be hugely in-sightful.

Loved it loved it. loved it again.

So, So.......2004-11-02

This is my first time reading a book on Jackie so I did not come in with certain expectations. I felt it was interesting to get a background on the woman, but I feel that there has to be better out there. My first complaint would have to be the constant name dropping. I didn't need to know who was on every cruise and vacation. Early on there are hints of problems between Jackie and her mother Janet yet the depth of the problems are not reached. The book was also disappoining in the sense that because it spent more than 3/4 of the content discussing her famous marriages, one would think there would be more than the superficial detail. For example, we are told that there are these various love letters but the content is kept under wraps. In the case of her second husband, Onassis is described as being insulting and cold towards her after a certain point in the marriage but any idea as to why is left up to the reader's imagination. Most importantly, her children are mentioned scarcely beyond their births when this is a woman who took great pride in being a mother. The picture just looked incomplete from many sides. Yes, Jackie was a private person but no one is an island. I do appreciate the care in which the author took to structure the book so that even the slow beginning was readable.

Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America's Most Scandalous President

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An Outstanding Biography
A Magnificent Work!
One of the best biographies ever
Living Vicariously
A Great Social Biography

Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America's Most Scandalous President
Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688077943

Amazon.com

A convincing reassessment of President Warren Harding's sudden death in 1923 is only one of the high points in this exhaustive biography of the president's wife, Florence (1860-1924). The author presents a detailed, three-dimensional portrait of the complicated woman he persuasively claims was the first truly modern First Lady: an equal partner in--indeed, the undisputed manager of- -her husband's career, and a trusted advisor whose opinions were always consulted. She'd had hard knocks, including a child conceived out of wedlock and an alcoholic first husband, but in public Florence always possessed the dignified, commanding presence that won her the nickname "Duchess." The contrast between her staid demeanor and Warren's partying ways, which included frequent and flagrant infidelities, makes for some juicy passages in an otherwise sober account of a transitional figure in the long struggle by American women to gain political power. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

A major new biography of the politically powerful forerunner of Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton.

Deeply researched and richly told, Florence Harding reveals the never-before-told story of First Lady Florence Harding's phenomenal rise to power. The daughter of an abusive father in small-town Ohio, mother at a young age to an illegitimate child, Florence Harding saw her escape in Warren Harding, and became the driving force behind his ascent to one of the most scandal-ridden presidencies in United States history.Preeminent First Ladies biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony not only captures the drama of Florence Harding's personality, but he uses the White House to bring to life Jazz Age America -- a world of speakeasies and Miss America, Babe Ruth, Al Jolson, and the rise of Hollywood. He shows how Florence's friendship with Evalyn McLean, the morphine-addicted owner of the Hope Diamond and The Washington Post was one of the defining bonds in her public life. With newly unsealed medical information, Florence Harding finally unfolds the mystery of whether the First Lady poisoned the President, whose death occurred seventy-five years ago. Florence Harding is a fascinating and informative look at a lost chapter in American history.

Customer Reviews:

An Outstanding Biography.......2005-08-29

Writer Carl Anthony has composed an outstanding biography in his work Florence Harding. Harding Florence Harding been one of the more easily understood or admired First Lady's in this nations history, this book would have been written years ago. However, Mrs. Harding's legacy has been in the past told and retold more as a tabloid story than factual account.

When approaching this book, one needs to understand how Mrs. Harding's legacy was tainted by three men, none of which was her husband Warren G. Harding. First, Gaston Means - a grifter and one time low level FBI agent - did a master job at maligning the deceased Mrs. Harding in his book, The Strange Death of President Harding, a ghost written work that was penned by a tabloid jouranlist who sued Means when he failed to honor his obligations to the writer. In this book, Means paints the picture of Mrs. harding that is pervasive in American Pop Culture: that Mrs. Harding was clueless love lorn hag, who spent her time with mystics plotting the Presidents next moves in star charts. This is an image that the public bought, hook, line and sinker.

The other two men who betrayed Mrs. Harding were her doctor, Charles E. Sawyer and his son Dr. Carl Sawyer. The Sawyers held Mrs. Harding in their sway - she believed that they were great medical doctors, however it was the elder Sawyer's mis diagnosis of President Harding's heart condition as food poisoning. When Charles Sawyer discovered that the widowed First Lady's kidney ailment acted up, he travelled to Washington DC and demanded that Florence return to Marion Ohio for treatment at his private Sanatorium rather than seek treatment at at the better suited facilities in Washington. Mrs, Harding was placed in a cottage at the facility, and then kept at the facility by Sawyer's son Carl after the elder Sawyer died. Following Mrs. Harding's death, Dr. Carl Sawyer assummed total control of the Harding Memorial Association and maintained an iron grip on the Harding legacy until his death in the 1960s. As with all great dictators, Carl Sawyer controlled all aspects of the Harding legacy. As a result, the public never had a fair opportunity to study the Harding's, but rather were fed a steady stream of "approved" information about the couple.

Anthony's work goes the distance in seperating the negative myths from the honest truths in her life, which by any standard was not charmed. However, the author does take liberties in communicating his emotions about Mrs. Harding. He believes that she has been mis-portrayed and his passion about correcting that sometimes overstates her case. However, his book is very well documented by copious endnotes and reliable first person accounts and primary documents.

This book will never be a New York Times best seller - the public would rather believe that Harding Myths inseatd of the facts - but for those who care to learn more about the truths of the 29th President and his most remarkable wife, this is a satisfying and accurate book to read.

A Magnificent Work!.......2003-12-17

How to make a fairly dull and unpleasant like Florence Harding come alive is a difficult enough feat, however the author does a splendid job of doing it! Expertly researched and pleasantly told, Mrs. Harding comes off far better than she has ever been depicted before - and perhaps even better than she deserves.

One of the best biographies ever.......2003-03-30

I found this book hard to put down. I had not realized all the things this obscure first lady was involved with in her life. She looks like somebody's stern grandmother so when I idly looked through this book, I was surprised to find myself drawn in immediately. It is a large book, but I read it very fast as I just could not put it down. This is how a biography should be written, it is well researched and yet still reads almost like a novel.

Living Vicariously.......2002-04-06

Carl Anthony reports in his prologue that the inspiration for this project came from none other than Alice Roosevelt Longworth, one of Florence Harding's collection of mercurial and dysfunctional friends. That fact alone speaks volumes about the tenor and atmosphere of the story. Perhaps aware of America's antipathy toward "The Duchess," Anthony has given this work a title worthy of an Oliver Stone epic. The reader who gets past the burlesque title will discover an intensively fascinating narrative of a driven, unconventional woman intertwined with a malleable young newspaper editor. When, years later, the Duchess would tell her "W'urrn" that she had made him president of the United States, many of their contemporaries would have agreed.

Born in 1860 to an Ohio businessman who wanted a son, Florence was in fact raised as a boy until her fourteenth year, when her domineering father realized that what he had actually created was a feminist with an attitude. He struck back ferociously and physically; Florence eventually retaliated by having herself impregnated by a hayseeder several years her junior. Christmas Day of 1882 found the young mother homeless and abandoned. Anthony takes the time to access the options available to this intelligent, ambitious, but impoverished woman. Determined to not disappear into rural Ohio obscurity giving piano lessons, Florence makes two critical decisions that would change her life forever, for better and worse: she gave her child away, and she set her cap for the man through whom she could make her mark in the public forum. On the surface these seem like cynical strategies, but with feminist sympathies Anthony takes pains to remind the reader that American business and politics were both male bastions in the Gilded Age. There were few routes for a woman of ambition.

Florence married the handsome and randy Warren Harding and immediately took over the operation of his local paper, turning a handsome profit and expanding the couple's business ventures. Anthony lets his facts carry the story: the Harding marriage is clearly one of convenience, arguably Florence's more than her husband's. Unencumbered by children, the Duchess, as she came to be called for obvious reasons, had time to consort with the political beat writers and politicians who came to Marion. She tended bar at their poker games, plied them with liquor for information and party gossip, and strategized a grand design for her husband's career in Ohio Republican politics. Managing Warren Harding was a full time job. He was not by nature ambitious, he was not a particularly good businessman, and he was not physically or mentally well, having suffered nervous breakdowns and indications of cardiovascular disease. His most obvious flaw-and one particularly odious to his wife-was his womanizing, which continued virtually to his death, with little concealment, and occasionally on the sly with her best friends.

For two people as different as Warren and the Duchess, it is surprising that they shared one common fatal flaw: they were both dreadfully poor judges of character. For all her intelligence and savvy, the Duchess became dependent [perhaps co-dependent] upon two outright rogues, Charles "Doc" Sawyer, her personal physician, and a gypsy fortune teller, Madame Marcia, both of whom exercised excessive influence throughout the entire Harding Administration. There is a sense in which Florence becomes more insecure with her greater success: Anthony describes her as weeping on Warren's Inauguration Day because of Madame Marcia's prediction that the new president would not live out his term.

Writing about a president's wife inevitably involves detailing the president and the presidency itself. Anthony does a creditable job in paying appropriate attention to Teapot Dome and Veterans Affairs scandals, for example, but in ways that keep the focus of the narrative on Florence and other political wives--Grace Coolidge, Emma Fall, and the aforementioned Mrs. Longworth, for example. The later unraveling of the Harding Administration has obscured the activism of the First Lady; Anthony reminds us of the Duchess's emotional investment in women's rights, veterans' welfare, animal rights, and international peace.

Anthony takes the position that the fateful 1923 "Alaska Trip" was essentially the First Lady's act of self-promotion. Ostensibly, the President's lavish cross continent tour was undertaken to rally political support at a time when congressional investigation of the executive branch was accelerating. The author's narrative of the trip forms a good portion of the book and deservedly so. Warren Harding was depressed and ill as the presidential train left Washington and journeyed across the continent. After innumerable speeches and rallies, the party sets sail from California to Alaska, traveling overland to sites that have probably not seen a president since. Although Anthony debunks many of the myths about the trip, the facts are strange enough-the presidential vessel collided twice with other vessels, and several members of the party were killed in various accidents.

The great mystery of the trip among conspiracy buffs is what [or who?] killed Warren Harding. In one sense the answer is simple enough-the trip exhausted the president to the point where he either suffered a stroke or heart attack in San Francisco. That we cannot say for certain is due to the Duchess, who permitted only Doc Sawyer to treat her husband. Sawyer's incompetence is excelled only by his arrogance; when Herbert Hoover fetched a renowned cardiologist from Stanford to the president's bedside, Sawyer, who was treating the chief executive with questionable purgatives, would have nothing to do with him.

For a veteran of the journalist profession, the Duchess's management of the news of the President's death was poor, and veteran reporters at once smelled cover-up. Most likely her immediate concern was the reputation of Sawyer, and she refused permission for an official autopsy. But her greater worry was the legacy of her husband; she spent weeks burning his official papers and personal correspondence. Her podium destroyed, Florence Harding outlived her husband by one year; she died while in residence at Sawyer's "sanitarium."

A Great Social Biography.......2001-02-26

I bought Anthony's biography of Florence Harding some time ago and it's sat a while in my "need to read stack". Every time a friend came over and saw it they laughed, questioning why I would have any interest Florence Harding. And I was hard pressed to explain why. But having just completed it I find it an amazing story and great compainion volume to Barbara Goldsmith's wonderful "other Powers" about Victoria Woodhull. More than a personal story, Anthony has given us a great social history of the era and early hipocracies of America's good old days. Eveyone would be better educated it they read this volume. And as to the Hardings, well the less said the better... as you will enjoy every single page of this great biography. Enjoy!

Best Mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart: Four Complete Novels by America's First Lady of Mystery

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"The Wall" That Made Me Read
If anything, read these for the joy of Rinehart storytelling

Best Mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart: Four Complete Novels by America's First Lady of Mystery
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Manufacturer: Readers Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0762188774
Release Date: 2002-09-12

Book Description

In one 608-page volume are four complete works of spine-tingling villainy, odious murder and sophisticated detection from America's first woman of mystery. Mystery aficionados will bask in brilliant twists and work alongside genteel detectives in The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, The Window at the White Cat, and The Buckled Bag.

Customer Reviews:

"The Wall" That Made Me Read.......2006-08-28

Some say that Mary Roberts Rinehart is the American Agatha Christie. If I were an avid reader, I might concur, but alas, I am not even close to an avid reader of mystery or any other category of book. HOWEVER, this woman wrote a mystery that drew me in like a vacuum and then kept me interested enough until I had read the entire work. "The Wall" is the work of which I speak. When it was first in my hands, I was a young lad in my teens. I aged, gathered wisdom until they gave me a title, saw the world, worked, partied, married, had sons who then made sons, and then I rested. Through all of that, I made sure to accomplish something that I have bragged about many times. I never read a book, completely. Even when it was required that I do so, I made sure to stop short of reading book totally by stopping at the next to the last page, the next to the last paragraph, or at times skip and entire chapter if I thought it might be fluff and add nothing to the experience. In order to sustain my wretched reading reputation, I did not read the last page of "The Wall". It was simply the conclusion statement by the story's narrator in the form of opinion about events that lead to the mystery's demise.
I still can say that any book ever in my hands has never been read, stem to stern, word after word. "The Wall" by Marry Roberts Rinehart is the on and only book that holds the title of being the one volume that just about made a fool of me. Now, give all of this serious consideration when you think about this author and the one story of hers that has a great secret power. Oh and by the way, I married a librarian but if you think that has made a reader of me, think again. NOT!

If anything, read these for the joy of Rinehart storytelling.......2005-05-08

I had never heard of Mary Roberts Rinehart until I picked up her novel Miss Pinkerton just by chance one day. This novel is not in this book, but it features one of her characters Nurse Hilda Adams who is a nurse hired by the police to observe people in houses under where there are mysterious occurences, and who is in the last book of this volume (The Buckled Bag- which is Hilda's first case). Miss Pinkerton is the nickname given to her by the Inspector Patton who is her sort of "boss" who assigns cases to her. I was surpised to find a delightful novel with interesting, witty, humorous dialogue, suspenseful and exciting moments, lovable characters, and good old-fashioned romance. So after that I looked for all the Rinehart novels I could find. I've read The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, and four Miss Pinkerton cases, and I've loved them all. She does a pretty good job of confusing you and making you wonder who the murderer is or what's going on and the storytelling itself is super! Most of her stories are written in first person and the narrators are usually funny, witty, and sarcastic which makes reading Rinehart's books so fun. I recommend these novels to anyone who is a simple mystery lover who likes stuff like that. I admit that the solving of the mystery is not as twisted and shocking as an Agatha Christie revalation, but the way the story is told makes up for the lack of intrigue and twists that are expected in some mystery novels. So read these novels! One other point - some people say that Rinhart is considered a gothic mystery horror writer, whatever that means, but don't let that fool you. They're not like that at all. Yeah, there's murder and all that in most of her stories, and strange things that go on, and suspense, but I wouldn't say her novels are scary thrilling horror novels. Her novels were written in the early 1900s so they're not all bloody and gory like novels today. They've got dignity and proper stuff in them, so if you like books like that, you'll like these. No need for me to tell you what the mysteries are about since there are plenty of other reviews that explain that if you look around amazon. Basically all you need to know is that here characters and settings are usually about the rich or middle class in the United States in the early 1900s. I guess you could put in the same class as the type of story Agatha Christie would write. It's just the way the story is told that is not even comparable. But like I said if you're a simple mystery lover like me, you'll like them! So go for it!

Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Peron

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Learn more about this fascinating persona
evita first lady
A hard myth to dissect
Evita First Lady : A Biography of Eva Peron
"Truth stranger than fiction"

Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Peron
John Barnes
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802134793

Book Description

Eva Peron was a star and a legend during her lifetime, one of the most alluring women of the twentieth century. Through the hit Broadway musical Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber, her story became famous, and with the release of the film starring Madonna as Eva Peron, her life became a media obsession once again. Whore and feminist, tyrant and saint, Evita was the beautiful and legendary woman who rose up from poverty to become the hypnotically powerful first lady of Argentina. To millions of poor people she was a savior; to her enemies she was a monstrous dictator. In this riveting biography, John Barnes explores the astonishing paradox of this champion of the poor who attacked the rich and, in the process, made herself the wealthiest woman in the world.

Customer Reviews:

Learn more about this fascinating persona.......2007-02-27

I fell in love last year. With Argentina. Having visited, I wanted to learn more and more. The musical Evita gave me a taste of the complexity of the fascinating story of one of Argentina's great figures. This book is a scholarly look at her life, her ups her downs, and includes many interesting photographs of Eva and Juan. I recommend it highly.

evita first lady.......2006-11-10

i enjoyed the book very much,i wanted to see the real person not the movie person.too bad she died so young,maybe she would have helped argentina more towards democracy.who knows? we never will. but i would have liked to have known her.

A hard myth to dissect.......2006-04-11

This is one biography that can tries to explain what made her tick. Close to 55 years since she died, Evita's mystery unravels slowly. Her childhood trauma is not enough to explain what drove her addictive need for power and bloodlust. If you admire powerful women, read this.

Evita First Lady : A Biography of Eva Peron.......2003-09-13

I am a biography buff. I prefer fact over fiction and read just about every autobiography and biography that I can get my hands on. Often I have found the need to read several biographies by various authors to get a clear picture and understanding of the subject's life and character. Not this time - Evita First Lady is an exquisitely written biography. It is not a bit of fluff but a riviting account of the life and times of one of history's most notorious first ladies. I highly recommend John Barnes' book.

"Truth stranger than fiction".......2003-06-05

I am very familiar with Latin American writers and read them in the Spanish. I read this book in Spanish even though it originally was in English! John Barnes is a very experienced journalist who was stationed in Bueonos Aires for various major publications. He has worked all over the world in places like Argentina, Chile. No. Ireland and covered the Iran Iraq was for Newsweek. With this background and talent he has crafted a facinating book about Eva Peron. It's true that there is a lot of politics but when you are first lady it goes with the territory. It's how she and Col. Peron transformed and revoluncionized Argentina just before the end of WW 11 that is so interesting. Evita left a little pueblo at 15 with no formal education, worked her way up to being a second rate actriz in their film industry. She fell in love with Col Peron many years her senior and took control of the country. It turnes out she was the brains and fierce driving spirit in the process who died at age 32. The major labor union petioned the Pope to have her cannonized a saint! I found this book by the pro John Barnes a real treat.

Average customer rating:

A Good Overview of American History
Columbus committed genocide -- says this book
Politically correct
Direct and straightforward and highly readable

The Making Of America
Robert D Johnston
Manufacturer: National Geographic Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792269446
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Book Description

From the first contact of Europeans with Native Americans in 1492 to the current events of the 21st century, this comprehensive volume makes the story of America interesting and fun for today's visually oriented kids. Major eras and social movements unfold chronologically. Each chapter includes biographies of two key people and a “Great Debate” focusing on some heated issue of that era and an explanation of its relevance today. Throughout the book, the roles and accomplishments of men and women of various racial and ethnic backgrounds are represented. Intriguing period art and photography bring people and events to life while specially designed maps make it easy for kids to follow the growth of our nation. Time lines, historic documents and speeches, a guide to historic sites, a list of Presidents, statehood dates, additional resources, and a detailed index further enhance this valuable family reference.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Overview of American History.......2007-06-20

The Making of America, by Robert Johnson, with a forward by Laura Bush, is a well-written picture book history of America. It includes numerous not only good history and pictures, but also unusually insightful profiles of important debates in American history, such as the Federalists versus the Anti-Federalists and the struggle over slavery culminating in Civil War.

The books includes loads of concise facts that ever American should know and profiles of important people from different aspects of American history, such as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and President Abraham Lincoln. It also includes important documents at the back of the book, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In only 199 pages you gain a solid understanding of the making of America. Keep in mind that this book seems designed to 1) be interesting and 2) provide an excellent overview. Therefore, you will need to seek a more thorough history books for a more thorough adult history of America.

My daughter thought that the sections on the Great Depression, World War II, Cold War and post-WWII era, Civil Rights, and Mexican War were the strongest. The profiles were good. I thought the Revolutionary War era was good. My daughter thought some parts were a little disjointed, which is expected for a brief book like this. Realistically, the Civil War, including the numerous battles and politics, cannot be easily convered in a book of this size.

My daughter also liked "Don't Know Much About American History" by Kenneth Davis as a supplement. It seems more factual and has fewer pictures, so that book is geared to older kids.

The tone of "The Making of America" is optimistic, patriotic and factual. I disagree with the nagative comments posted by another reviewer. Concerning Columbus, the book tells that traditional story but also states factually the very important historical fact that "when Europeans arrived, the population of North, Central and South America was about 60 to 70 million people. Between 5 million and 15 million of them were spread throughout the land that is now Canada and the United States. Over the next four centuries, that figure fell by more than 90 percent before it began to rise again. Millions of Indians died in what many scholars, and most Native Americans, consider the greatest disaster in all history."

That is a truthful statement and a very important fact of history. Big events like that should not be supressed because someone today feels attahced to person many centuries ago. Indeed, my daughter knows many more stories about Columbus and Cortez that were left out. The coverage in this book is fair and honest.

Nobody today should be personally offended. Is anyone from 500 years ago still around? That event is a story of another time and different people. WE did not do anything.

To put this in perspective, my ancestors were Vikings, and the truth is that they could be brutal savages. I have nothing to do with what they did centuries and so take no offense with telling the entire story of the Vikings. The complete story of the Vikings is fascinating history.

In summary, this is an outstanding picture book history of America that is optimistic and engaging, unless you are an extremist and hate simple facts.

Columbus committed genocide -- says this book.......2005-02-13

I consider myself an intellectual who had a liberal education. I've read several American History books, including the standard high school text published by Prentice Hall, and I liked them all. I don't have a problem with political correctness as long as they keep the facts straight. Then I found The Making of America to homeschool my kids. The book looks beautiful, with big type and pictures, and I expected no problem at all.

I was first shocked to read "Columbus was greedy and brutal." (p.14) But I thought, well, maybe he was. Then I read, "Many historians argue that Columbus, along with many settlers over the three centuries that followed his arrival, committed genocide. When the Europeans arrived, the population of America was about 70 million people. Over the next four centuries, that figure fell by more than 90 percent. Millions of Indians died in what many scholars consider the greatest human disaster in all history."

Is that why we celebrate Columbus day? This is the first time I ever heard about Columbus being charged with genocide! Most history books I read before said most American Indians died from white man diseases because of their lack of immunity. However, the white man did not do so on purpose, and that alone make me think that no sane historian can put Columbus on the same level as Hitler.

Say if I go visit a friend and he dies from a flu bug I have on me but don't know it, does that mean I commited murder?

Furthermore, if the author thinks the death of 70 million over several centuries is the "greatest human disaster in all history," then he hasn't looked at Russia and China during Stalin and Mao's communist rule, when more than that many people were deliberately massacred over merely a few decades.

I persisted and read to p.20 where it says, "Slavery within Africa was usually relatively humane. Slaves and their food and clothing were much the same as everyone else's. Often they could marry, and their children were free at birth."

That's not true at all! I remember reading a personal account of an African (Algerian) slave who was sold with his family. His master treated him shamefully, and that was common practice. Slavery is NEVER humane.

I'm glad I check out this book, though, because it reminds me why I wish to homeschool my kids. It is better to jump now then later, when my kids come home from school and yell, "Mom, Comlumbus committed genocide!"

Politically correct.......2003-04-09

If you are looking for a book that reinforces the "politally correct" bias taught in most public schools, this is it! While the photographs and layout of the book are attractive to look at, if you actually read the text, you will find that it finds fault with Americans on every major issue; from calling some of the founding fathers "hypocrites," to siding with the Indians in our quest to settle America, to focusing on all the negative aspects of WWII, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans, rather than the positive aspects of how we freed the world from the Nazi regime, to pro feminism, very liberal text. If you are proud of our American heritage, and the Christian principles our country was founded on, this book is not for you. I was very disappointed. There is so much that is great about our country, but this book doesn't emphasize it!

Direct and straightforward and highly readable.......2002-10-11

Enhanced with a Foreword by First Lady Laura Bush, The Making Of America: The History Of The United States From 1492 To The Present by historian Robert D. Johnston (Associate Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University) is an impressively written history of America ranging from Columbus' voyage through national independence, two world wars, and down to the present day. Maps, photographs, and even historical cartoons add visual impact to this direct and straightforward and highly readable historical summary, which is fascinating to simply browse through -- especially for those whose high school history classes were a long time ago.

Martha Washington: America's First Lady (The Childhood of Famous Americans Series)

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A Enjoyable Book

Martha Washington: America's First Lady (The Childhood of Famous Americans Series)
Jean Brown Wagoner
Manufacturer: Aladdin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0020421605

Customer Reviews:

A Enjoyable Book.......1999-12-16

A easy read tale with the basic facts. A great book for kids with a fun side. Using it on a report as a source is great.

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food

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An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure
Found Her
What a waste of time...
A tribute to an American icon
Marks skimps on the criticism

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food
Susan Marks
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743265017

Book Description

IN 1945, FORTUNE MAGAZINE named Betty Crocker the second most popular American woman, right behind Eleanor Roosevelt, and dubbed Betty America's First Lady of Food. Not bad for a gal who never actually existed.

"Born" in 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to proud corporate parents, Betty Crocker has grown, over eight decades, into one of the most successful branding campaigns the world has ever known. Now, at long last, she has her own biography. Finding Betty Crocker draws on six years of research plus an unprecedented look into the General Mills archives to reveal how a fictitious spokesperson was enthusiastically welcomed into kitchens and shopping carts across the nation.

The Washburn Crosby Company (one of the forerunners to General Mills) chose the cheery all-American "Betty" as a first name and paired it with Crocker, after William Crocker, a well-loved company director. Betty was to be the newest member of the Home Service Department, where she would be a "friend" to consumers in search of advice on baking -- and, in an unexpected twist, their personal lives.

Soon Betty Crocker had her own national radio show, which, during the Great Depression and World War II, broadcast money-saving recipes, rationing tips, and messages of hope. Over 700,000 women joined Betty's wartime Home Legion program, while more than one million women -- and men -- registered for the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air during its twenty-seven-year run.

At the height of Betty Crocker's popularity in the 1940s, she received as many as four to five thousand letters daily, care of General Mills. When her first full-scale cookbook, Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, or "Big Red," as it is affectionately known, was released in 1950, first-year sales rivaled those of the Bible. Today, over two hundred products bear her name, along with thousands of recipe booklets and cookbooks, an interactive website, and a newspaper column.

What is it about Betty? In answering the question of why everyone was buying what she was selling, author Susan Marks offers an entertaining, charming, and utterly unique look -- through words and images -- at an American icon situated between profound symbolism and classic kitchen kitsch.

Customer Reviews:

An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure.......2007-10-05

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food is the true story behind a commercial icon of 1950's homemaking - Betty Crocker. Created in 1921 as a "friend to homemakers" for the Washburn Crosby Company (a forerunner of modern-day General Mills), "Betty Crocker" was in fact the collective women of the Home Service Department who signed Betty's name. Betty Crocker's local radio show on WCCO expanded, as audiences across the nation learned to appreciate her money-saving recipes and wrote her nearly 5,000 fan letters a day. An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure, illustrated with vintage black-and-white photographs.

Found Her.......2007-06-17

This is a delightful book! Susan Marks has researched it well, and tells the story of the selling of American women with clarity and humor. That our mothers were so shamelessly manipulated is appalling, but many good meals came out of it, and, in all honesty, Betty Crocker inspired many women to branch out and create their own recipes using mixes and prepared foods as a basis. It was a very pleasant read and a marvelous depiction of a period in the evolution of American women.

What a waste of time..........2005-12-01

I suppose there's a book coming out for the male counterpart to Betty Crocker, Mr. Duncan Hines. What, there's no Duncan Hines? Well, then surely we'll get biographies of Mr. Clean or the Tidy Bowl Man next then. As if decades of fooling a guillible mass-consumer market weren't enough, here "she" goes again by getting those to buy into "her" biography hook, line and sinker. What fun. Enjoy this garbage if you are into it. Otherwise, avoid.

A tribute to an American icon.......2005-11-26

Over eight decades, Betty Crocker has been one of the most recognizable American advertising icons. Marks' book focuses not just on the image of Betty Crocker, but on her relationship with the American housewife and how she shaped the face of American homemaking. Betty's recipes revolutionized homemaking, and she called for standard pan size and baking temperatures while recommending that only high quality Gold Medal flour be used in baking. Later, Betty's mixes made the homemaker move away from scratch cooking and toward a standard, pre-packaged baking product.

I was fascinated by the Betty Crocker radio program and by the letters from homemakers to Betty. Marks' book is comprehensive, full of excellent illustrations of advertisements, recipes, magazine spreads, letters, and more, and it makes for gripping reading.

Marks skimps on the criticism.......2005-07-07

While Susan Marks' liberal use of uppity prose in this book helped keep my mind from my lackluster summer, I don't think "Finding Betty Crocker" performs to its fullest capacity. Marks goes to great lengths showing how Betty Crocker was a staple of '50s kitchen kitsch who served a greater purpose: helping millions of everyday women cope during the Depression and World War II. I walked away from this book with a greater understanding of why my grandmother and great-aunts spoke so fondly of their favorite anonymous homemaker. Marks' prose, however cheery, walks the fine line between nonfiction and public relations: she never mentions the role Betty Crocker and General Mills played in telling millions of U.S. housewives that culinary perfection would equal marital bliss during the mid-20th century or covering up a scientific study that showed white bread to be less healthy than perceived. If Marks had gone deeper with these issues and scrapped a 20-page chapter describing the various Betty Crocker Test Kitchens, I think this book would have been much stronger. That said, however, I could really go for some Devil's Food right now! I guess Susan has done her job.

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