Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868 | Cokie Roberts
4 posts | 4 read | 1 reading | 9 to read
In this engrossing and informative companion to her New York Times bestsellers Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, Cokie Roberts marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War by offering a riveting look at Washington, D.C. and the experiences, influence, and contributions of its women during this momentous period of American history.With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social Southern town of Washington, D.C. found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States.After the declaration of secession, many fascinating Southern women left the city, leaving their friends such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital. With their husbands, brothers, and fathers marching off to war, either on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the Capital City to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists. Many risked their lives making munitions in a highly flammable arsenal, toiled at the Treasury Department printing greenbacks to finance the war, and plied their needlework skills at The Navy Yard once the sole province of men to sew canvas gunpowder bags for the troops.Cokie Roberts chronicles these women's increasing independence, their political empowerment, their indispensable role in keeping the Union unified through the war, and in helping heal it once the fighting was done. She concludes that the war not only changed Washington, it also forever changed the place of women.Sifting through newspaper articles, government records, and private letters and diaries many never before published Roberts brings the war-torn capital into focus through the lives of its formidable women."
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
blurb
Librarybelle
post image

I was so sad to hear of the passing of Cokie Roberts. I‘ve seen her work as a journalist, but I‘m more familiar with her nonfiction. This is a newer work of hers, and probably the one I like the best. She has also focused on the Founding mothers of the US.

Tony Horowitz this past spring. Now Cokie Roberts. I‘m getting a bit concerned for some of my go to nonfiction authors!

blurb
KeepCalmWithBooksAndCoffee
post image

I‘m really enjoying this. Very interesting.

18 likes2 stack adds
blurb
SarahRotenberry
post image

Ever since I finished Gone With the Wind, I'm having a hard time letting go of the Civil War era. It has become interesting and alive to me for the first time. Picked this up just this evening

blurb
Pinkmeghan
post image

Most of my #politicsandbooks tend to be in print or passed along after I finish them, but here are my ebooks for the #augustphotochallenge #augustofpages And yes, one of them is a political romance novel. What can I say, I was carried away by Scandal this season haha!

25 likes1 stack add