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Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt
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56
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
73/100Critics
40/100Scholars
Author:
Charlotte Gray
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Date:
September 12, 2023
Born into upper-class America in the same year, 1854, Sara Delano (later to become the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Jennie Jerome (later to become the mother of Winston Churchill) refused to settle into predictable, sheltered lives as little-known wives to prominent men. Instead, both women concentrated much of their energies on enabling their sons to reach the epicenter of political power on two continents. In the mid-19th century, the British Empire was at its height, France's Second Empire flourished, and the industrial vigor of the United States of America was catapulting the republic towards the Gilded Age. Sara and Jennie, raised with privilege but subject to the constraints of women's roles at the time, learned how to take control of their destiniesâSara in the prosperous Hudson Valley, and Jennie in the glittering world of Imperial London.
What The Reviewers Say
The social-justice smugness...does not seem to bode well for what will follow. And indeed, a few pages later...Ms. Gray introduces slavery as if readers have never heard of it.
Frank and lively.
Gray’s impeccable research and insightful look into social constraints of the time bring these women to life, highlighting the often-overlooked ways Jennie and Sara shaped not only their own destinies but those of their sons. Perfect for literary nonfiction, history, women’s-history, and biography readers..
Compassionate and vivid.
