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spinnerroweok's review
5.0
What a remarkable woman Nellie Taft was. Living in a time when women had almost no opportunity to set their own course, Mrs. Taft was a strong partner in her relationship with her husband. She said when she was a young girl that she wanted to marry a president and live in the White House, and that she did. But what a ride to get there, taking her through the Philippines and around the world. She set many precedents for a First Lady, including being the first First Lady to ride back from the inauguration with her husband, the president. And she loved her beer! While very open to diverse groups of people, she was also very elitist.
Honestly, there is so much I want to write about Nellie Taft, but Mr. Anthony does such a tremendous job, I won't steal his thunder. Read this book, if for no other reason than to see the expression on people's faces when you tell them you are reading a book on Nellie Taft. :-)
Honestly, there is so much I want to write about Nellie Taft, but Mr. Anthony does such a tremendous job, I won't steal his thunder. Read this book, if for no other reason than to see the expression on people's faces when you tell them you are reading a book on Nellie Taft. :-)
anya_reading's review
4.0
This is one of the few non-fiction books that I read this year. At just over 400 pages, it was a lengthy read for me, packed with information. However, I believe that the author did an excellent job of arranging the narrative of this book, and so, even though it was full of information, the book also had a sense of drama that compelled one's interest.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have been interested in Presidential figures, and keenly remember reading about them, with some mentions of their First Ladies. Idle gleanings of Wiki articles filled in the information gap a little more, but after reading this book, I can truly say that I've gone from knowing next to nothing about Mrs. Taft to now knowing much more about her than any other First Lady. Coming into the book, my expectations were speculative as to how much I would enjoy learning about this person. I found her spunky; and though she seemed to have been a sensitive person who did not easily forget being "slighted" by others, as well as exhibiting classist behavior from time to time, her immense love for music, unflagging endurance, and striving ambition demanded my respect.
All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this book. A large portion of it also details her close relationship with President Taft, and gives a further degree of familiarity with his personality during various stages of their lives.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have been interested in Presidential figures, and keenly remember reading about them, with some mentions of their First Ladies. Idle gleanings of Wiki articles filled in the information gap a little more, but after reading this book, I can truly say that I've gone from knowing next to nothing about Mrs. Taft to now knowing much more about her than any other First Lady. Coming into the book, my expectations were speculative as to how much I would enjoy learning about this person. I found her spunky; and though she seemed to have been a sensitive person who did not easily forget being "slighted" by others, as well as exhibiting classist behavior from time to time, her immense love for music, unflagging endurance, and striving ambition demanded my respect.
All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this book. A large portion of it also details her close relationship with President Taft, and gives a further degree of familiarity with his personality during various stages of their lives.
socraticgadfly's review
4.0
I debated between four and five stars, and was first going to go with five because I think the overall Goodreads average rating is a bit low, and because of the biggest reasons many people three-starred this or less with written reviews.
"Nellie was too boring" or similar.
It's not her fault she wasn't Florence Harding.
However, there were enough legit reasons to back it down that I eventually did. Ideally, 4.25 stars.
It's a very solid look at arguably the first modern First Lady, and the first to stick her head into politics since Mary Lincoln — but overall with more political smarts than Lincoln.
The contrasts within Taft are interesting — sometimes fairly enlightened on race issues, but a to-the-bones snob on class ones. A social climber, but yet one who wanted a love match to be even more a friendship match — and largely got that.
Almost a proto-flapper, yet one because of class biases, didn't want all women to have the vote. (To be fair, she wanted some men to lose that right.)
There was no conflict on one issue, though — she was the driving force in Big Bill becoming president, getting him to turn down previous SCOTUS nomination possibilities.
One thing I found interesting was the conflict between her and Edith Roosevelt. Since Edith was an even bigger snob, it offered Nellie the chance to re-examine her own classism ... with that apparently not actually happening. Missing from all this is that Edith, in more subtle ways, apparently influenced Teddy almost as much as Nellie did Will. Even if Nellie didn't totally know that at the time, she surely had an inkling, and Anthony could have played that out even more.
After all, it was the fracturing between these two that led to the fracturing between Teddy and Will. (An interesting sidelight is that Will pushed McKinley to name Teddy Asst. Secretary of the Navy, thus having a direct role in boosting their friendship.)
That said, Anthony does do a good job of presenting Teddy as a hypocrite on the third term. He was already scheming at the time of the midterm elections in 1910, and Edith was surely pushing him. (Wiki's article on her, claiming she definitely opposed him running, is flat wrong. It's "nice" to know that Wiki can get non-current as well as current political affairs wrong.)
Also unrecorded here? Did Nellie have any reaction to Will as Secretary of War being Teddy's yes-man enforcer on the black troops at Brownsville? If not then, what about later?
The biggie is, for the unknowing, Nellie's stroke less than six months into Will's presidency. Often hesitant without her guidance, he floundered. Already heavy, he became a depressive eater and truly became "Big Bill" at this time. (He dropped below 300 after leaving the presidency.) Nellie had post-stroke speaking problems that limited her public appearances for six months and more. Then, a little over a year later, a second, more moderate stroke. Worries about stresses causing further "attacks" kept Will from relying on her.
Anthony does do a good job in Taft's Supreme Court career, noting how this fulfilled HIS ambition, and without acrimony, led to them leading more separate lives.
==
Even had I stayed with five stars, this had a few errors.
1. Japan did NOT "own the Philippines" before Magellan and Spain. There was a Japanese trading post on northern Luzon, and before that, Japanese pirates occasionally marauded. That was it.
2. The Gulf Stream does not have some magic ability to turn due east at Gibralter, then "stir up" the Straits of Messina another 800 miles east.
"Nellie was too boring" or similar.
It's not her fault she wasn't Florence Harding.
However, there were enough legit reasons to back it down that I eventually did. Ideally, 4.25 stars.
It's a very solid look at arguably the first modern First Lady, and the first to stick her head into politics since Mary Lincoln — but overall with more political smarts than Lincoln.
The contrasts within Taft are interesting — sometimes fairly enlightened on race issues, but a to-the-bones snob on class ones. A social climber, but yet one who wanted a love match to be even more a friendship match — and largely got that.
Almost a proto-flapper, yet one because of class biases, didn't want all women to have the vote. (To be fair, she wanted some men to lose that right.)
There was no conflict on one issue, though — she was the driving force in Big Bill becoming president, getting him to turn down previous SCOTUS nomination possibilities.
One thing I found interesting was the conflict between her and Edith Roosevelt. Since Edith was an even bigger snob, it offered Nellie the chance to re-examine her own classism ... with that apparently not actually happening. Missing from all this is that Edith, in more subtle ways, apparently influenced Teddy almost as much as Nellie did Will. Even if Nellie didn't totally know that at the time, she surely had an inkling, and Anthony could have played that out even more.
After all, it was the fracturing between these two that led to the fracturing between Teddy and Will. (An interesting sidelight is that Will pushed McKinley to name Teddy Asst. Secretary of the Navy, thus having a direct role in boosting their friendship.)
That said, Anthony does do a good job of presenting Teddy as a hypocrite on the third term. He was already scheming at the time of the midterm elections in 1910, and Edith was surely pushing him. (Wiki's article on her, claiming she definitely opposed him running, is flat wrong. It's "nice" to know that Wiki can get non-current as well as current political affairs wrong.)
Also unrecorded here? Did Nellie have any reaction to Will as Secretary of War being Teddy's yes-man enforcer on the black troops at Brownsville? If not then, what about later?
The biggie is, for the unknowing, Nellie's stroke less than six months into Will's presidency. Often hesitant without her guidance, he floundered. Already heavy, he became a depressive eater and truly became "Big Bill" at this time. (He dropped below 300 after leaving the presidency.) Nellie had post-stroke speaking problems that limited her public appearances for six months and more. Then, a little over a year later, a second, more moderate stroke. Worries about stresses causing further "attacks" kept Will from relying on her.
Anthony does do a good job in Taft's Supreme Court career, noting how this fulfilled HIS ambition, and without acrimony, led to them leading more separate lives.
==
Even had I stayed with five stars, this had a few errors.
1. Japan did NOT "own the Philippines" before Magellan and Spain. There was a Japanese trading post on northern Luzon, and before that, Japanese pirates occasionally marauded. That was it.
2. The Gulf Stream does not have some magic ability to turn due east at Gibralter, then "stir up" the Straits of Messina another 800 miles east.
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