Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk

With this highly readable biography, Greenberg (George Winfree Professor of History and Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State Univ.; A Wicked War) tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of an unheralded presidential spouse and provides an insightful analysis of gender roles in 19th-century America. Sarah Childress Polk (1803–91) skillfully manipulated cultural expectations for women of her class while forging a companionate marriage that was a true political partnership. Throughout James K. Polk's career as Speaker of the House, governor of Tennessee, and U.S. president, Sarah served as his communications director and managed his correspondence. The author shows how the politically engaged first lady deliberately cultivated a deferential persona in order to adhere to traditional values, and how she served as an example to future conservative women with political power. Greenberg astutely explains that Sarah failed to attain recognition by distancing herself from the emerging suffrage movement, championing the deeply unpopular Mexican War, and acting in the interests of the Confederacy. This well-researched account aims to correct the historical record and refute misinterpretations of her life.