The Role of First Lady: Martha Washington to Laura Bush - Bibliography

Carl Sferrazza Anthony, First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power , 2 vols. (New York, 1990–1991), covers the topic from Martha Washington to Nancy Reagan, with the entire second volume devoted to the post-1960 years. Rather than writing about each woman separately, Anthony focuses on the relationships among them and the many instances in which their lives intersected.

Betty Boyd Caroli, First Ladies (New York, 1987; expanded ed. 1995), is a history of the job and the women who held it from 1789 to 1995. Written from a feminist perspective, it connects changes in the role of First Lady to changes in the lives of all American women. Margaret Truman, First Ladies (New York, 1995), is a personal history of the subject, including anecdotes and observations of a president's daughter.

Lewis L. Gould, ed., American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy (second edition, New York, 2001), has articles on every president's wife, from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. The entries, each written by an outstanding scholar in the field, conclude with bibliographies listing writings by and about the subject. Paul Boller, Jr., Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal History (New York, 1988), has entries on each First Lady from Martha Washington to Nancy Reagan.

Myra G. Gutin, The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century (Westport, Conn., 1989), grew out of a doctoral dissertation examining the communication roles of presidents' wives after 1920. The book divides twentieth-century First Ladies into several categories: "social hostesses and ceremonial presences," "emerging spokeswomen," "political surrogates and independent advocates," and "a First Lady in transition."

Nearly half of Presidential Studies Quarterly 20 (fall 1990) is devoted to articles on the role of First Ladies and recent scholarship on the topic. Ten essays focus on twentieth-century incumbents and their effect on the presidency.

Nancy Kegan Smith and Mary C. Ryan, eds., Modern First Ladies: Their Documentary Legacy (Washington, D.C., 1989), includes an introductory article by Lewis L. Gould on the role of First Ladies and articles by individual archivists on the records available for the presidents' wives from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Reagan years.

William Seale, The President's House , 2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1986), is a reliable history of the White House and includes material on First Ladies before 1960.

Recent works include Kati Marton, Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History (New York, 2001).