Rating: 
Summary: Tough People That Weaker Sex
Review: This book is a tremendous contribution to the historical picture. Suppose you were the wife of an upper-level Colonial Army officer who, during the annual winter pause in fighting, visits the family from November to February, then he goes back off to war and is thus not around to talk to. You, the wife, now have the management of the farm/business, with perhaps 5 children to raise, with the task of planning for the family's escape should the British invade your part of the colonies, and since women were the fighters against outbreaks of deadly infectious agents (smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, etc) you could be called into this action, and, by the way, you are 7 months pregnant. Added to this is the good chance that you could deliver the child in the heat of summer (the year being about 1780) with no electric fans, no air-conditioning, and with 1780's medical knowledge (no knowledge of viruses or bacteria, and no antibiotics). As illustrated by this book, this routinely was the situation of our Founding Mothers. And of course there is more. (By the way, window screens will not be invented for 100 years, leaving folks with the interesting choice of leaving the windows open and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, or closing the windows and sweltering.)
Rating:
Summary: Founding Mothers: History You Can Actually Read!
Review: This was a fabulous book! You wouldn't think that it would be hard to put down a thick, history tome, but it was. I hated to stop reading each night. If Cokie Roberts wrote more textbooks, History class would be much more enjoyable.
I can hardly imagine what she went through to gather her information. There are many reasons for the dearth of female figures in the Revolutionary War sections of history textbooks. There are certainly the age old sexism issues and the lack of space (there are only so many things that can be crammed into any given school year), but there is also the big problem that very little of the writings of these women were saved. Thank goodness that John Adams had the sense to value his wife Abigail and save many of her letters! Frankly, the picture that develops from these letters is one that clearly shows that John, as great as he was, did not deserve Abigail. This book is filled with tales that are rarely told yet document events that were every bit as important to the birth of the USA as many events that are included in mainstream texts. Even better, it is all written with Cokie Roberts' dry wit and concise summation. All in all, this was one of the best books that I have read in a long time and I will continue to recommend it to all who will listen!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Story, Long Past Due
Review: Virtually all the stories that come down to us through the history books are about men. But men do not live in a vacuum. They all have mothers, most have wives, some have sisters or mistresses. During the time of the founding of the United States and its breaking away from England, only a few women come to mind: Betsy Ross (who maybe did or maybe didn't make that flag), Molly Pitcher (who may or may not have served that cannon at the Battle of Monmouth), Martha Washington, Abigail Adams - who else? Ben Franklin had a child, so presumably he had a wife -- he did Deborah Read Franklin and her story is the first in this book.
That's about the content of the book. Each chapter is a story about one of these women along with their interactions with their husbands, family and the other women of their society. These are, for the most part, women from the upper classes of the time. It was a time when thest women "fought for the foundation of this country and they made sure that the men did not allow it to fall apart."
As a professional journalist of many years standing, Ms. Roberts tells a wonderful, entertaining story that is long since past due.
Rating: 
Summary: A much needed glimpse into women's lives
Review: We have been listening to the audio version in the car. Quite enjoyable- Cokie makes the history interesting and it's a great book to listen to while driving.No- this is by no means a complete history of our country. And no- it does not even qualify as a complete biography of any one of these women. But, it is a much needed glimpse into the past. In general, women are ignored by history books, and she fills in some gaps. Of course, there are still huge gaps, but those say more about how women have been ignored throughout history than the thoroughness of Cokie's research. I would recommend this to anyone interested, and quite frankly, were I a history teacher, I would make it required reading for any American History class. Altogether too often history gets bogged down in dates and wars, and every single class can benefit from remembering that these people were human too.
Rating: 
Summary: Books by Dinosaurs
Review: What the heck happened to Cokie Roberts?!?!?!
Yesterday I heard her respond to a question about the sorry state of political discourse by citing talk radio (she was on a local "public" station) and late night liberal comedians.(Rush who. . .? ) A year or so ago she and her husband were critcizing workers at Walmart for trying to unionize! It's hard to believe that she was part of a radio/tv network that brought down Richard Nixon. I'm not buying her book. If I want information I'll tune into Air America.
Rating:
Summary: For In Style readers who've yet to graduate to People Mag
Review: With Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Cokie Roberts has provided a service to remedial readers everywhere.
Writing on what appears to be a third grade reading level (which I hope reflects a choice she made and not her own reading comprehension level), Cokie's prodded her usual readers to put down their See Spot Run picture books.
Trudging through page after page of facts from other books (usually better written ones), I kept attempting to think of another writer so committed to a grace-free style.
Used to be that a writer of Cokie's ilk would put out a book (say, Joan Rivers) and no one who read it fooled themselves into thinking it was a great book or helping the nation's literacy levels. We knew it was trash and if we read it, we didn't try to justify it after the fact by praising it as anything other than a "page turner" (high praise for these type of books).
But somewhere along the way we appear to have lost our abilities for critical thought if this repetative, plodding clip-job can be seen as anything other than a hack trying to cash in with as little work as possible. (The American dream? I don't know, we used to take pride in our work.)
I made it to page 70 (and felt I lost several reading levels in the process) before I tossed this book. Couldn't even pass it on because though I do favor recycling, I couldn't in good faith risk inflicting the cellular damage this type of dull, graceless "writing" does to one's brain.
I read the reviews of this hoping to find something I'd missed in the 70 pages I had read, some level on which to appreciate it.
I didn't find any comments like that. Some argue it's "new" information. New to them, perhaps, but that's nothing they should scream from the rooftops. (Has Jay Leno's stupid American skits made people proud of their own ignorance?) I did read a review that cautioned readers not to mistake clip-jobs for books and not to mistake magpies for authors. I applaud that sentiment. It's sound, it's reasoned, it's informed, it's educated.
But clearly there's a market for this book. I've reflected on the seventy pages read for half an hour now trying to figure out whom these people are. Then it hit me, Founding Mothers is a "book" for In Style readers who've yet to graduate to People Magazine.
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