There’s no position description for a first lady. But now—thanks to the first-ever textbook coauthored by three founding members of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education, an affiliate of AU’s center devoted to the study of the country’s most exclusive sorority—there is a scholarly record of their work written exclusively for college students.
US First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies, released in July, “draws on Abigail Adams’s plea to her husband, John, in 1776 to ‘Remember the ladies,’” says Anita McBride, WSP ’81, former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush and director of AU’s First Ladies Initiative.
“This book fills a gap in the academic literature,” continues McBride, executive in residence at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in the School of Public Affairs. “There have been plenty of biographies and memoirs. What was missing was a contextual overview of the first ladies’ contributions from the founding of the country to today and an examination of how the role has evolved in a way that mirrors the evolution of women in society.”
Jill Biden penned the forward to the book, which, in the words of the current first lady, “shines a spotlight on women who have so often thrived in the shadows of their spouses . . . [serving as] trusted advisors, diplomats, and legends in their own right.” In addition to profiles of Martha Washington and her 40-plus predecessors, the book explores first ladies’ speeches, campaign appearances, advocacy, and stewardship of the White House.
“These women are in such a unique position,” McBride says. “They are unelected, but the minute the president takes the oath of office, his spouse has a platform. The question is: How do they choose to use it?”
One of her favorite case studies from a book chock full of them is that of Bess Truman (pictured), who in 1948 helped her husband oversee the largest-ever renovation of the White House.
After a structural survey revealed that the nearly 150-year-old structure was on the verge of collapse, Congress pushed to demolish the landmark and build anew. But Truman, “who history tends to remember as very behind-the-scenes,” McBride says, summoned her quiet power to quite literally save 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“I hadn’t realized that Mrs. Truman worked as a Senate staffer to her husband, handling his correspondence and writing his speeches,” McBride says. “She was intimately knowledgeable about how the appropriations process worked, and she utilized her skills almost like a lobbyist to prevail upon senators—and their wives—to preserve the building. Her message was: ‘The American people will never forgive you for removing a symbol as important as this if you tear the building down.’”
They didn’t—and the four-year, $5.5 million renovation not only saved the White House but cemented in history Bess Truman’s legacy.
McBride and her coauthors, Nancy Kegan Smith and Diana Carlin, SPA adjunct professorial lecturer, tested an early draft of the textbook in four different university classes—two of them at AU. Based on student feedback, the writing team added tables with important dates and facts, alongside bolded key words, bulleted learning objectives, and discussion questions.
“I appreciated the genuine interest in my feedback,” says Trevor Jones, SPA/MPA ’23, who used the text in his America’s First Ladies class last fall. “I enjoyed the thoughtful discussions with my classmates about the book, which offers the reader a much fuller history of the American presidency.”
The textbook has been so well received, in fact, that the authors are working on a trade version, Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, which hits shelves in December.
McBride says she doesn’t know why it took so long for someone to write a scholarly textbook account of America’s first ladies, but she’s honored to be the first to do it. “Working for a first lady, I had a front row seat to history; it’s so exciting to give readers a glimpse into that world.”