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American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden Audiobook
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The first definitive exploration of the changing role of the twenty-first-century First Lady, painting a comprehensive portrait of Jill Biden—from a White House correspondent for The New York Times
“A fascinating and deeply researched exploration into the most public facing and least understood role in Washington.”—Kate Andersen Brower, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women
Since the Clinton era, shifts in media, politics, and pop culture have all redefined expectations of First Ladies, even as the boundaries set upon them have often remained anachronistic. With sharp insights and dozens of firsthand interviews with major players in the Biden, Obama, Trump, Bush, and Clinton orbits, including Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers traces the evolution of the role of the twenty-first-century First Lady from a ceremonial figurehead to a powerful political operator, which culminates in the tenure of First Lady Jill Biden.
Dr. Jill Biden began her journey toward public life in 1975 as a twenty-three-year-old who caught the eye of a widowed Senator Joe Biden. Recovering from the heartbreak of her failed first marriage, she found a man who was still grieving. She knitted his life together after unspeakable tragedy and stood by his side through three presidential campaigns.
In some ways, her legacy as First Lady was set before she ever entered the White House: She is the first presidential spouse in history to work in a paid role outside the White House, a decision that blazes the path for future first spouses. But as a prime guardian of one of the most insular operations in modern politics, she is also a central part of her husband’s presidential legacy.
Through deep reporting and newly discovered correspondence, American Woman is the first book to paint a full picture of Jill Biden while exploring how she helps answer the evolving question of what the role of the modern First Lady should be.
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"American Woman is a fascinating and deeply researched exploration into the most public facing and least understood role in Washington. Katie’s fresh reporting offers striking revelations about the inner lives of the first ladies, we see them struggle to hold their families together under the world’s most glaring spotlight. We also see their drive to create real and lasting change during their years in the White House. The undefined position in American politics comes at a cost. Each of these women has faced the public’s fickle expectations and society’s arbitrary limitations on female power. As wives and mothers, teachers and lawyers, they have carved out unique places in history and they’ve helped expand the possibilities for the presidential spouses who will follow them."
— Kate Andersen Brower, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women
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American Woman is a fascinating and deeply researched exploration into the most public facing and least understood role in Washington. Katie Rogers’s fresh reporting offers striking revelations about the inner lives of the first ladies. Each of these women has faced the society’s fickle expectations and arbitrary limitations on female power. As wives and mothers, teachers and lawyers, they have carved out unique places in history and helped expand the possibilities for the presidential spouses who will follow.
— Kate Andersen Brower, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women -
American Woman is a triumph. Katie Rogers brings each of her subjects alive on the page with the care, empathy, guts, and first-class reporting chops that have made her one of the most powerful political writers of the century.
— Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine -
Katie Rogers has expertly managed to shed light on one of the most complex and misunderstood roles in modern politics. With deep reporting and revealing firsthand anecdotes, American Woman takes readers inside the East Wing and into the bizarrely essential role of an American First Lady.
— Kate Bennett, former CNN White House correspondent, author of Free, Melania -
Hillary. Michelle. Melania. These and other first ladies recognized around the globe by their first names have more behind-the-scenes power than most people realize. With insightful reporting and graceful writing, Katie Rogers illuminates this elite club of American women, including their varied personalities and lasting impact.
— Mary Jordan, national political correspondent for The Washington Post, author of The Art of Her Deal -
Katie Rogers shows us the knowledge, wisdom, tenacity, and world-building powers some of the most famous women were holding right in front of us.
— Sam Sanders, founding co-host of The NPR Politics Podcast -
Rogers rigorously examines the notion of legacy and the first lady in the modern era. These women, she maintains, are ‘the most known (and often least understood) women in America.’ Rogers’ unerring journalistic evaluation of the person behind the post should help change all that.
— Booklist, starred review -
[A] deeply interesting, and thoroughly researched, look at the role of First Lady.
— Town & Country -
Americans expect a lot from their first ladies and throughout our history many of their contributions have been overlooked. Inspired by a museum exhibit on Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House years that combined substance with style, Katie Rogers explores the challenges first ladies face in both meeting and defying those expectations—ultimately remaining true to themselves turning this unique, undefined role into their own.
— Anita McBride, executive-in-residence at American University and author of U.S. First Ladies -
From one of our shrewdest students of the Presidency comes this trenchant, fresh and fascinating story of Jill Biden and earlier First Ladies in our time, and how—both in public and private—they have transformed what we should expect of a Presidential spouse.
— Michael Beschloss -
American Woman is a fascinating and deeply researched exploration into the most public facing and least understood role in Washington. Katie Rogers’s fresh reporting offers striking revelations about the inner lives of the first ladies. Each of these women has faced the society’s fickle expectations and arbitrary limitations on female power.
— Kate Andersen Brower, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women -
Americans expect a lot from their first ladies and throughout our history many of their contributions have been overlooked. Katie Rogers explores the challenges first ladies face in both meeting and defying those expectations—ultimately remaining true to themselves turning this unique, undefined role into their own.
— Anita McBride, executive-in-residence at American University and author of U.S. First Ladies -
Katie Rogers rigorously examines the notion of legacy and the first lady in the modern era. These women, she maintains, are ‘the most known (and often least understood) women in America.’ Rogers’ unerring journalistic evaluation of the person behind the post should help change all that.
— Booklist, starred review -
A well-written, extensively researched account of a challenging role in the public eye.
— Kirkus Reviews -
A gripping and elegant patchwork of portraits of the women who have occupied our nation’s strangest and most fraught official role, American Woman is a triumph. Katie Rogers brings each of her subjects alive on the page with the care, empathy, guts, and first class reporting chops that have made her one of the most powerful political writers of the century. Here, Katie achieves what is usually left to history: insight into the sitting First Lady, Jill Biden, who emerges as a character and a force, and above all, as a real person.
— Olivia Nuzzi, New York Magazine Washington Correspondent -
Katie Rogers has expertly managed to shed light on one of the most complex and misunderstood roles in modern politics. With deep reporting and revealing firsthand anecdotes, Rogers takes readers inside the East Wing and into the bizarrely essential role of an American First Lady.
— Kate Bennett, former CNN White House Correspondent, author of Free, Melania -
Hillary. Michelle. Melania. These and other first ladies recognized around the globe by their first names have more behind-the-scenes power than most people realize. With insightful reporting and graceful writing, Katie Rogers illuminates this elite club of American women, including their varied personalities and lasting impact.
— Mary Jordan, author of The Art of Her Deal -
American Woman is a fascinating and deeply researched exploration into the most public facing and least understood role in Washington. Katie’s fresh reporting offers striking revelations about the inner lives of the first ladies, we see them struggle to hold their families together under the world’s most glaring spotlight.The undefined position in American politics comes at a cost. Each of these women has faced the public’s fickle expectations and society’s arbitrary limitations on female power.
— Kate Andersen Brower, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women -
Rogers has shown us all the knowledge, wisdom, tenacity, and world-building powers some of the most some of the most famous women in the world were holding right in front of us for decades (centuries!)
— Sam Sanders, founding co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast
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