First ladies and the press : the unfinished partnership of the media age / Maurine H. Beasley ; foreword by Caryl Rivers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beasley, Maurine Hoffman.

Series:

Visions of the American press

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Presidents' spouses--Press coverage--United States.

Presidents' spouses.

Mass media--Political aspects--United States.

Mass media.

Mass media--Political aspects.

Press coverage.

United States.

Press and politics--United States.

Press and politics.

Presidents' spouses--United States--Biography--Miscellanea.

United States--Politics and government--Miscellanea.

Politics and government.

Genre:

Trivia and miscellanea.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxi, 335 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2005.

Summary:

At her first press conference, Eleanor Roosevelt, uncertain of her role as hostess or leader, passed a box of candied grapefruit peel to the thirty-five women journalists. Nearly sixty years later, Hillary Rodham Clinton, an accomplished professional woman and lawyer, tried to mollify her critics by handing out her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. These exchanges tell us as much about the social-and political-roles of women in America as they do about the relation of the first lady to the press and the public. Looking at the personal interaction between each first lady from Martha Washington to Laura Bush and the mass media of her day, Maurine H. Beasley traces the growth of the institution of the first lady as a part of the American political system. Her work shows how media coverage of first ladies, often limited by stereotypical ideas about women, has not adequately reflected the importance of their role.

Contents:

Eleanor Roosevelt and the "newspaper girls"

Early first ladies and the public sphere

Jackie Kennedy and the construction of Camelot

First ladies as political helpmates : Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon

First ladies and feminism : Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter

First ladies and image-making : Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush

Hillary Rodham Clinton as media polarizer

Laura Bush as emblem of national caring

Looking ahead.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-313) and index.

ISBN:

0810123126

OCLC:

60743189