Books by Jean H Baker
“Jean Baker sets a great example for biographers. It’s not that she used a lot of new sources; there was just abundant new insight. Baker makes you recognise how Mary Lincoln was demonised in her own day and how that served the purposes of her husband’s opponents. They knew how popular Abraham Lincoln was and that his wife was the only way to attack him. In Jean Baker’s book we are able to see Mary Todd Lincoln as a woman, not a liability. She was well read, she was passionate, she was polemical, and yes she struggled with depression and perhaps paranoia. It’s fair and it’s accurate. It’s the most analytic biography ever written of Mary Lincoln.” Read more...
The Best Books about First Ladies
Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Biographer
Interviews where books by Jean H Baker were recommended
The Best Books about First Ladies, recommended by Carl Sferrazza Anthony
From the annexation of Texas to the UN’s Commission on Human Rights, first ladies have played a key role in the history of the United States. Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony recommends five engaging books about the tumultuous lives of some of the country’s first ladies.
