Hutchins Library News Blog

We continue celebrating women and their accomplishments now for Women's History Month and always. Today we are featuring 7 biographies of American first ladies. These books are available on our shelves, so feel free to visit the library and check them out.

Martha Washington by Helen Bryan

Call Number: Stacks 973.4109 W319zb

ISBN: 9780471158929

Publication Date: 2002-04-01

A contemporary anecdote not only confirms that Martha commanded respect in her own right during her lifetime, but also suggests an awkward truth later historians have preferred to ignore-that without Martha and her fortune, George might never have risen to social, military, and political prominence.Toward the end of his life, George Washington, war hero, retired president, and object of universal fame and veneration, was negotiating to purchase a plot of land in the new capital city, to be named in his honor. The seller, an aged veteran of the Revolution, was reluctant to part with the plot, even to so distinguished a purchaser. Washington persisted until the veteran's patience snapped: 'You think people take every grist that comes from you as the pure grain. What would you have been if you hadn't married the Widow Custis!' -from the Introduction to Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty. From the glittering social life of Virginia's wealthiest plantations to the rigors of winter camps during the American Revolution, Martha Washington was a central figure in some of the most important events in American history. Her story is a saga of social conflict, forbidden love affairs, ambiguous wills, mysterious death, heartbreaking loss, and personal and political triumph. Every detail is brought to vivid life in this engaging and astonishing biography of one of the best known, least understood figures in early American life.

 

 

Abigail Adams by Edith B. Gelles

Call Number: Stacks 973.44 A211zga 2002

ISBN: 9780415939454

Publication Date: 2002-02-08

In this book, Edith B. Gelles asserts that Abigail Adams' vivid, insightful letters are "the best account that exists from the pre- to the post-Revolutionary period in America of a woman's life and world." Adams' spontaneous, witty letters serve dual purposes for the modern reader: it provides an intriguing first hand account of pivotal historical events and it shows how these events from the Boston Tea Party to the War of 1812 entered the private sphere. Included in the book is a chronology, notes and reference section and a selected bibliography. This book will be a must for all scholars of American literature, history and politics seeking to understand this literary figure.

 

 

 

A Perfect Union by Catherine Allgor

Call Number: Stacks 973.5109 M1815za 2006

ISBN: 9780805073270

Publication Date: 2006-04-04

An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, groundbreaking portrait of the early days of the republic - and the birth of modern politics. When the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of American politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation's newly minted capital. Into that unsteady atmosphere, which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain in 1812, Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband, James. Within a few years, she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and by her death in 1849 was the most celebrated person in Washington. And yet, to most Americans, she's best known for saving a portrait from the burning White House, or as the namesake for a line of ice cream.Why did her contemporaries give so much adulation to a lady so little known today? In A Perfect Union, Catherine Allgor reveals that while Dolley's gender prevented her from openly playing politics, those very constraints of womanhood allowed her to construct an American democratic ruling style, and to achieve her husband's political goals. And the way that she did so - by emphasizing cooperation over coercion, building bridges instead of bunkers - has left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics.Introducing a major new American historian, A Perfect Union is both an illuminating portrait of an unsung founder of our democracy, and a vivid account of a little-explored time in our history.

 

 

Mary Todd Lincoln by Jean H. Baker

Call Number: Stacks 973.709 L738zb 2008

ISBN: 9780393333039

Publication Date: 2008-10-17

This definitive biography of Mary Todd Lincoln beautifully conveys her tumultuous life and times. A privileged daughter of the proud clan that founded Lexington, Kentucky, Mary fell into a stormy romance with the raw Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln. For twenty-five years the Lincolns forged opposing temperaments into a tolerant, loving marriage. Even as the nation suffered secession and civil war, Mary experienced the tragedies of losing three of her four children and then her husband. An insanity trial orchestrated by her surviving son led to her confinement in an asylum. Mary Todd Lincoln is still often portrayed in one dimension, as the stereotype of the best-hated faults of all women. Here her life is restored for us whole.

 

 

Eleanor by David Michaelis

Call Number: Stacks 973.917 R781zmic 2020

ISBN: 9781439192016

Publication Date: 2020-10-06

In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin Franklin. Despite their inability to make each other happy, Franklin Roosevelt transformed Eleanor from a settlement house volunteer on New York's Lower East Side into a matching partner in New York's most important power couple in a generation. When Eleanor discovered Franklin's betrayal with her younger, prettier social secretary, Lucy Mercer, she offered a divorce and vowed to face herself honestly. Here is an Eleanor both more vulnerable and more aggressive, more psychologically aware and sexually adaptable than we knew. She came to accept FDR's bond with his executive assistant, Missy LeHand; she allowed her children to live their own lives, as she never could; and she explored her sexual attraction to women, among them a star female reporter on FDR's first presidential campaign, and younger men. Eleanor needed emotional connection. She pursued deeper relationships wherever she could find them. Throughout her life and travels, there was always another person or place she wanted to heal. As FDR struggled to recover from polio, Eleanor became a voice for the voiceless, her husband's proxy in presidential ambition, and then the people's proxy in the White House. Later, she would be the architect of international human rights and world citizen of the Atomic Age, urging Americans to cope with the anxiety of global annihilation by cultivating a "world mind." She insisted that we cannot live for ourselves alone but must learn to live together or we will die together. Drawing on new research, Michaelis's riveting portrait is not just a comprehensive biography of a major American figure, but the story of an American ideal: how our freedom is always a choice. Eleanor rediscovers a model of what is noble and evergreen in the American character, a model we need today more than ever.

 

 

Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Call Number: Stacks 328.7309 C641h 2014

ISBN: 9781476751443

Publication Date: 2014-06-10

Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. "All of us face hard choices in our lives," Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the center of world events. "Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become." In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had to decide how to repair fractured alliances, wind down two wars, and address a global financial crisis. They faced a rising competitor in China, growing threats from Iran and North Korea, and revolutions across the Middle East. Along the way, they grappled with some of the toughest dilemmas of US foreign policy, especially the decision to send Americans into harm's way, from Afghanistan to Libya to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had visited 112 countries, traveled nearly one million miles, and gained a truly global perspective on many of the major trends reshaping the landscape of the twenty-first century, from economic inequality to climate change to revolutions in energy, communications, and health. Drawing on conversations with numerous leaders and experts, Secretary Clinton offers her views on what it will take for the United States to compete and thrive in an interdependent world. She makes a passionate case for human rights and the full participation in society of women, youth, and LGBT people. An astute eyewitness to decades of social change, she distinguishes the trendlines from the headlines and describes the progress occurring throughout the world, day after day. Secretary Clinton's descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a master class in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use "smart power" to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world--one in which America remains the indispensable nation.

 

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Call Number: Stacks 973.932 O122b 2018

ISBN: 9781524763138

Publication Date: 2018-11-13

 As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.   In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.

 

 

 

Welcome to another edition of "From Our Shelves," where I highlight and write a short review of a book I have read from our collection. February is Black History Month, so this week I read Allow Me to Retort. In this book, Mystal takes on a big challenge: debunking the myth that the U.S. Constitution is an inclusive and infallible document. In reality, as Mystal demonstrates and carefully explains in the book, the U.S. Constitution is a document designed to preserve White supremacy at the expense of Black people, and pretty much every other "minority" group, but Mystal for now focuses on Black people, which is a big task in itself. This may also be a good book for reading groups and clubs. It offers good arguments supported with solid evidence, and it has just a touch of snark to make it easier to read.

See below for the book's library catalog details.

Allow Me to Retort by Elie Mystal

Call Number: Stacks 342.73 M998a 2023

ISBN: 9781620976814

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Allow Me to Retort is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them. Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past. Mystal brings his trademark humor, expertise, and rhetorical flair to explain concepts like substantive due process and the right for the LGBTQ community to buy a cake, and to arm readers with the knowledge to defend themselves against conservatives who want everybody to live under the yoke of eighteenth-century white men. The same tactics Mystal uses to defend the idea of a fair and equal society on MSNBC and CNN are in this book, for anybody who wants to deploy them on social media. You don't need to be a legal scholar to understand your own rights. You don't need to accept the "whites only" theory of equality pushed by conservative judges. You can read this book to understand that the Constitution is trash, but doesn't have to be.

Celebrated annually on August 26 in the United States, Women's Equality Day commemorates the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. The 19th Amendment prohibits the federal government and states from denying the right to vote to U.S. citizens on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1971. Congress designated the observance in 1973. Traditionally, the President of the United States issues a proclamation for the observance every year starting with President Richard Nixon in 1973. 

Here are some websites where you can learn more: 

• "From Suffrage Day to Women’s Equality Day: A Brief History of Celebrating August 26" via Library of Congress.
• "Women’s Equality Day" via National Women's History Alliance. 
• "Women’s Equality Day: August 26, 2023." Some facts and figures about it via the U.S. Census Bureau.

If you are interested in doing further research on this topic you can try the following databases, which you can find on the library website under "Electronic Resources:"

• Gale Virtual Reference Center. A collection of e-book reference works. 
• Hein Online. For legal and government documents research. 

From our shelves, here are some books that may be of interest: 

Gendered Citizenship by Rebecca DeWolf

Call Number: e-book

ISBN: 9781496228291

Publication Date: 2021-10-01

By engaging deeply with American legal and political history as well as the increasingly rich material on gender history, Gendered Citizenship illuminates the ideological contours of the original struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) from 1920 to 1963. As the first comprehensive, full-length history of that struggle, this study grapples not only with the battle over women's constitutional status but also with the more than forty-year mission to articulate the boundaries of what it means to be an American citizen. Through an examination of an array of primary source materials, Gendered Citizenship contends that the original ERA conflict is best understood as the terrain that allowed Americans to reconceptualize citizenship to correspond with women's changing status after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Finally, Rebecca DeWolf considers the struggle over the ERA in a new light: focusing not on the familiar theme of why the ERA failed to gain enactment, but on how the debates transcended traditional liberal versus conservative disputes in early to mid-twentieth-century America. The conflict, DeWolf reveals, ultimately became the defining narrative for the changing nature of American citizenship in the era.  

 

American Women's Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote 1776-1965 (LOA #332) by Susan Ware (Editor)

Call Number: 324.623 A512 2020

ISBN: 9781598536645

Publication Date: 2020-07-07

For the first time, here is the full, definitive story of the movement for voting rights for American women, of every race, told through the voices of the women and men who lived it. Here are the most recognisable figures in the campaign for women s suffrage, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but also the black, Chinese, and American Indian women and men who were not only essential to the movement but expanded its directions and aims. Here, too, are the anti-suffragists who worried about where the country would head if the right to vote were universal.

 

Suffrage At 100 by Stacie Taranto (Editor); Leandra Zarnow (Editor)

Call Number: 320.082 S946 2020

ISBN: 9781421438689

Publication Date: 2020-08-04

Suffrage at 100 looks at women's engagement in US electoral politics and government over the one hundred years since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In the 2018 midterm elections, 102 women were elected to the House and 14 to the Senate--a record for both bodies. And yet nearly a century after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the notion of congressional gender parity by 2020--a stated goal of the National Women's Political Caucus at the time of its founding in 1971--remains a distant ideal. In Suffrage at 100, Stacie Taranto and Leandra Zarnow bring together twenty-two scholars to take stock of women's engagement in electoral politics over the past one hundred years. This is the first wide-ranging collection to historically examine women's full political engagement in and beyond electoral office since they gained a constitutional right to vote. The book explores why women's access to, and influence on, political power remains frustratingly uneven, particularly for women of color and queer women. Examining how women have acted collectively and individually, both within and outside of electoral and governmental channels, the book moves from the front lines of community organizing to the highest glass ceiling. Essays touch on * labor and civil rights * education * environmentalism * enfranchisement and voter suppression * conservatism vs. liberalism * indigeneity and transnationalism * LGBTQ and personal politics * Pan-Asian, Chicana, and black feminisms * commemoration and public history * and much more. Contributors: Melissa Estes Blair, Eileen Boris, Marisela R. Chávez, Claire Delahaye, Nicole Eaton, Liette Gidlow, Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq), Emily Suzanne Johnson, Dean J. Kotlowski, Monica L. Mercado, Johanna Neuman, Kathleen Banks Nutter, Katherine Parkin, Ellen G. Rafshoon, Bianca Rowlett, Sarah B. Rowley, Ana Stevenson, Barbara Winslow, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Nancy Beck Young.

 

Vanguard by Martha S. Jones

Call Number: 323.3409 J781v 2021

ISBN: 9781541600256

Publication Date: 2021-12-07

"An elegant and expansive history" (New York Times) of African American women's pursuit of political power--and how it transformed America      In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.       Now revised to discuss the election of Vice President Kamala Harris and the vital contributions of Black women in the 2020 elections, Vanguard is essential reading for anyone who cares about the past and future of American democracy. 

 

 

Welcome to "From Our Shelves," where I highlight a book from our collections that I have read and may be of interest to our readers. For this series, I hope to highlight both new books as well as backlist books that deserve another look. This week I am looking at the topic of impeachment in the United States government with a book by Barbara A. Radnofsky.

A Citizen's Guide to Impeachment is an easy to read guide for citizens wanting to learn more about the impeachment process. How does it work? Who can be impeached? Who has been impeached? This book answers those questions and more. The book includes a historical overview of 19 impeachments (as of the book's publication) with a history of what happened and some key lessons from an impeachment event. The key lessons are probably the most important part, and they illustrate how impeachment law has improved and been refined over time. The book is an easy read, and the author makes a good effort to make the process accessible and easy to understand for everyone. It explains key concepts very well. 

See below for the publisher's description of the book and the call number information so you can find it on our shelves. Book is located in the library's General Collection on the third floor. 

A Citizen's Guide to Impeachment by Barbara A. Radnofsky

Call Number: 342.7306 R129c 2017

ISBN: 9781612197050

Publication Date: 2017-09-12

A non-partisan guide to a precise understanding of the rules and history of impeachment . . . Spotlighting in particular the precise rules of impeachment-including an explanation of the crucial grounds for impeachment, the famous "high crimes and misdemeanors"-the book also details its origins in British law, the rules as set out by the founding fathers in the Constitution, and their application throughout the history of our democracy. That history involves a detailed chronology of the nineteen instances of impeachment that have taken place-of judges, presidents, and officials from the cabinet and congress-throughout American history, including the very first impeachment conviction of an America official- that of a federal judge who seemed to have developed dementia. All of which makes A Citizen's Guide to Impeachment a fascinating read about a unique aspect of our democracy, as well as a useful, one-of-a-kind guide for citizens in a participatory government.

A small item of possible interest to researchers, specially in subjects like U.S. History and Political Science. J-Stor Daily, J-Stor's newsletter, reported recently that the Moral Majority's collection of primary sources is now available and searchable via J-Stor. This collection is part of J-Stor's Open Collections. J-Stor Open Collections contain primary sources and images from libraries, museums, and archives from the United States and around the world.

According to the article, "The Moral Majority collection, [direct link to the collection] curated by Liberty University, [link to Liberty University's J-Stor Open Collection] contains materials generated during the ten years the organization was in existence. These include fundraising appeals, radio broadcast transcripts, issues of Moral Majority Report and the Liberty Report newsletter, theological statements by Elmer L. Towns (then Dean of Liberty Baptist Seminary), and diverse policy documents."

Direct link to the collection is listed above. In addition, researchers here at Berea College can access this collection and other open collections through J-Stor. Here are some steps you can follow:

• Start at the library website: https://libraryguides.berea.edu/.
• Click on "Electronic Resources."
• Click on the "J" link to get to J-Stor.
• Once you open J-Stor, hover the mouse over "Browse" and you will see "Collections." Click on "Collections" then set the search, "Collection Type"  to "Open Collections." You can then search this and other open collections. You can also narrow this search by a specific institution. Using the example from the article, you could select Liberty University.

If you have further questions or need assistance to access this or any of our resources, you can contact the Reference Desk via email at reference@berea.edu or via telephone at 859-985-3109.

We recently acquired this book for the library. It is part of Oxford University Press's series of "What Everyone Needs To Know." This is a second edition of the book. The author is a professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria and writes on modern Ukraine and Russian-Ukraine relations. The book uses a question and answer format to provide a good primer on Ukraine, its history, and the current situation. The book also includes a chronology of events, map, notes, and a list of books for further reading.

This book may be of interest for students who may be exploring and researching topics related to Ukraine and the war with Russia. The book can provide a good primer of the topic. It can also help students learn terms and vocabulary to aid in doing additional searching, and it provides references for further reading. The book can provide a good start for researchers on the topic.

You can find this book in the library's Reference Collection. You can read the publisher's description of the book below for more details.

* * * * *

Post by Tim Binkley, Head of Special Collections and Archives:

I would like to share with you a new online exhibit of items from the Special Collections and Archives that has just been posted.

The Path to Woman Suffrage in the United States: 1848 – 1920 (https://scaexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/pathtowomansuffrage) highlights period print materials from the curio book collection and the archives that advocated for (or against) extending voting rights to women. Normally we would show these works as a physical exhibit behind glass. However, due to current circumstances, the exhibit will be online only. On-campus students, faculty, and staff may make appointments to view all items in the SCA reading Room via https://berea.libwizard.com/f/ReadingRoom. As an added feature, the online exhibit offers hyperlinks to free online copies of the featured texts. So even if you cannot come to the reading room, you can still read the works in question.

The exhibit was produced to accompany the National Archives pop-up display “Rightfully Hers” that is currently in the Hutchins Library foyer. (https://libraryguides.berea.edu/blog/Rightfully-Hers-Popup-Exhibit-Celebrates-Womens-Suffrage-Centennial-at-Hutchins-Library)

I hope that you will enjoy exploring both and gaining some insights about the struggle for equal rights.

May we all value our hard-won voting rights enough to exercise them this fall.

Hutchins Library would like to let patrons know that the library now offers Hein Online as part of its online electronic resources. The database can be described  as follows:

"HeinOnline is the world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials and more than 2,300 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase."

Some of the materials available on Hein Online include, but are not limited to:

• Case law
• Law Journals
• Government documents like the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), U.S. Federal Agencies documents, decisions, and appeals, and U.S. Treaties and Agreements.
• Various legal history collections such  as religion and the law.

You can access Hein Online via the library website. It is listed under "Electronic Resources." This database can be useful for students working on topics such as legal issues, political science, history, women's studies, and other subjects.

Please note this is a subscription-based resource. If you are off campus, you will need to authenticate to gain access by providing your Berea College credentials (username and password).