American Woman

February 12, 2024
Rogers, a White House correspondent for the New York Times, debuts with a sympathetic survey of recent first ladies. Profiling presidents’ wives since the 1990s—Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, and Jill Biden—Rogers highlights ways in which each pushed back against the role’s strictures and expectations. The account begins with Clinton, who learned “the hard way” that strides made by her more outspoken predecessors, including Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush, did not mean she wouldn’t face public backlash for trying to be politically engaged with her husband’s administration. Clinton’s struggle, according to Rogers, “permanently and fundamentally shifted how Americans view the role,” allowing later first ladies more room to maneuver: Laura Bush was more involved in activism than she probably would have been without Clinton’s precedent (mainly on behalf of Afghan women and girls); politics-hating Obama pursued her own initiatives (mostly around fitness and nutrition) while staying away from limelight when possible; “absentee” Trump opted out almost entirely (her anti-bullying “Be Best” campaign being a notable exception); and Biden has kept her job as a teacher while taking on a vigorous support role in her husband’s administration. Rogers’s easily digestible analysis—polite, respectful, and light on dirt or gossip—is focused on outlining the first ladies’ own perceptions and reminiscences. Readers will be rewarded by this feminist personal history of celebrity and power.