"Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies" by Kristie Miller (University Press of Kansas 2012)

Wow!  I can't believe how fast time flies.  This is my first post of 2012, which is terrible, but better late than never I suppose!  So here's my first book review of the year.

I read a lot of history and biography books, but my focus tends to be pre-1900.  However, when I was at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. last fall, I had the opportunity to see Kristie Miller discuss this book.  I was intrigued and purchased the book as soon as I returned home.

The first thing you notice about this book is its feel.  It's narrower than the average book and is wrapped in something more leather-like than usual.  I always take the dust jacket off when I read a book, so it was nicer to hold than other books.

Prior to seeing Ms. Miller speak, I knew very little about President Wilson other than that he was President during WWI.  I wasn't aware he had two wives during his term, and while this book focuses on them, I learned a lot about President Wilson as well.  He was a man who needed a woman by his side, and he married his second wife (Edith) not too long after the death of his first wife (Ellen). 

Wilson married Ellen well before he got into politics.  Ellen could have had a career of her own as an artist, but she chose to give that up to support her husband, first as a professor at and president of Princeton and then as a politician.  She raised the couple's children and probably was a more astute politician than her husband.  She also looked the other way when Wilson had a close, if not adulterous, relationship with another woman.  Unfortunately, Ellen died during Wilson's first term.

Seventeen months after Ellen's death, Wilson married Edith.  This might have been considered too soon, but even Wilson's daughters acknowleged that he needed female companionship.  Edith was a controversial figure.  Some time into Wilson's second term, he suffered a series of strokes that left him largely incpacitated.  Rather than turn power over to the Vice Presdient, Edith essentially took over.  The French Ambassabor even referred to her as "Mme. President" when Edith rather than Wilson met with him to dicuss terms of the treaty that would end WWI.  Edith determined who could see the President and which issues would be brought to him and which wouldn't.  Wilson died in 1924, just three years after leaving office in 1921.  Edith survived him by nearly 40 years and spent much of that time rehabilitating what was a fairly negative impression of Wilson's predidency.

One thing that really struck me while reading this book was how much time President Wilson spent golfing.  It seemed the more stressful the times, the more he golfed to relieve that stress.  We hear a lot of negative comments today about the amount of time President Obama spends on the golf course, as if it affects his ability to govern.  I think Wilson's example shows that he was a better President when he took that time away from the job, and we should possibly be less critical of modern Presidents doing the same.

I enjoyed this book and found it easy to read.  Sometimes biographies can get read like history textbooks and this definitely reads as a story.  I would recommend this book for the following audiences: anyone who thinks they don't like reading history or biographies or is new to this era of history, as I was; those who enjoy reading about Presidents or First Ladies; and those who enjoy WWI-era history.


Book cover image courtesy of http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/milell.html