Review by Choice Review
This book is well written, but it disappoints for digressing too much from its stated topic. Glover (Saint Louis Univ.) examines the fatherhood of famous Virginia founders George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason, and Patrick Henry. Washington receives the lion's share of the treatment. The author gives primary coverage to the subjects' roles in public life; fatherhood is mainly in the context of public service and, to a lesser extent, as patriarch. Glover tries to match everything against the criteria of Republican virtue, but the intimacy of the father-child relationship is missing. There are some worthwhile comments on slavery as part of the extended family and on maintaining households. One would like to have seen more particulars, such as the very dangerous relationship of Washington and his stepson Jacky Custis with John Posey. Including some less-known Virginia leaders would have enhanced the work and opened opportunities for original research. All in all, despite the narrow approach, this book offers a lively review of the leadership qualities of the great Virginia founders of the nation. Summing Up: Recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Harry M. Ward, University of Richmond
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With an inventive twist on the "founding fathers" moniker, historian Glover (The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown) probes the link between family and politics, but limits her focus to the lives of wealthy Virginians. Men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Glover persuasively argues, became the founders of a new country precisely because of their views on fatherhood and family and because they were family men. She moves briskly from the imperial crisis of the 1760s through the generation that followed the creation of the Constitution, demonstrating the importance of familial words and ideas to the launch of a new country, always keeping tight rein on her argument. It's a sophisticated history peppered with tidbits from the private sphere: of particular interest is the chapter on the Virginians' wrestle with the institution of slavery, especially because it benefited their own families and fortunes even while clashing with enlightened principles of freedom and independence. As a social historian, Glover covers gender as well as racial issues, exploring women's roles in the family and the nation, and explaining how the founders viewed the inequality of women as part of the world's natural order. Fans of these influential men should delight in this inventive addition to the historical literature. Illus. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A superb new perspective on America's Founding Fathers. Glover (The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America, 2008, etc.) explores the family lives of five remarkable Virginia planter-patriarchs who helped shaped the rebellion against England, commanded the Continental Army and led the early continental governments. At a time when fatherhood entailed responsibility for the well-being of their communities, their relatives and the social order, these dutiful gentry fathers ran their plantations, mastered their slaves and served in political office. Writing with authority, she traces the often overlooked private lives of elite men who preferred the joys of plantation life ("our own Vine and our own fig tree") but deemed their revolutionary cause "a parental obligation." These Virginians were Thomas Jefferson, who, like the others, inherited racial power as well as land, money and family ties; grief-stricken widower George Mason, who took care of the "lesser sort" through public service; Patrick Henry, who kept his insane wife in a basement storage room; James Madison, who struggled with a stepson's drunkenness and gambling; and George Washington, who chose fathering a country over domestic life. Drawing on primary sources, Glover describes their rarefied lives of leisure and wealth and shows the many ways in which their political actions affected their domestic lives, and vice versa. The war prompted "a revolution in family values," with fathers unable to exert their usual influence over a younger generation of declining virtue and morality. It also gave rise to a 19th-century world in which talent and achievement began to supersede the old hereditary power. For all that, women were still denied full civic participation (Jefferson's granddaughter could not attend his University of Virginia), and slaves, deemed a critical part of these gentry families, remained slaves. Well-written and immensely rewarding, this important book will appeal to both scholars and general readers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
