Untold Power

The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson

De: Rebecca Boggs Roberts

Narrado por: Saskia Maarleveld

A nuanced portrait of the first acting woman president, written with fresh and cinematic verve by a leading historian on women’s suffrage and power

While this nation has yet to elect its first woman president—and though history has downplayed her role—just over a century ago a woman became the nation’s first acting president. In fact, she was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She climbed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power and in 1919 effectively acted as the first woman president of the U.S. (before women could even vote nationwide) when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. Beautiful, brilliant, charismatic, catty, and calculating, she was a complicated figure whose personal quest for influence reshaped the position of First Lady into one of political prominence forever. And still nobody truly understands who she was.

For the first time, we have a biography that takes an unflinching look at the woman whose ascent mirrors that of many powerful American women before and since, one full of the compromises and complicities women have undertaken throughout time in order to find security for themselves and make their mark on history. She was a shape-shifter who was obsessed with crafting her own reputation, at once deeply invested in exercising her own power while also opposing women’s suffrage. With narrative verve and fresh eyes, Untold Power is a richly overdue examination of one of American history’s most influential, complicated women as well as the surprising and often absurd realities of American politics.

Well done!

I love First Lady stories and this one did not disappoint! It’s so well written and well narrated. I did not know anything about Edith Wilson or the dichotomy of the person she was. Highly recommend!

Daughter of Cokie and Steve knocks it outta the park

I learned so much about yet another First Lady Rebecca’s mom wrote another book about First Ladies I am so thrilled to add this to my bank of presidential knowledge yeah Rebecca following her vaunted family legacy.

Intimate view of a president and his wife

This book held all the intricacies of a relationship of one of our past Presidents with his wife. Some was good and some was not. The story does not hold back on telling an honest yet respectful story and painting a clear picture of this early twentieth century power couple. Warts and all. Wilson was president during WWI and during the Spanish flu epidemic, before radio! This is a real inside glimpse into his life and that of his fiercely devoted wife, Edith. Narration completely appropriate and did not detract from the story.

Excellent!

I did not know anything about this first lady and she was basically president while her husband was sick and she was amazing!

great audible’. As I listened to this audible unfold I felt like I was present within historic event taking place,

The audible untold power is a must listen in this day age to show people hat woman can do the impossible when when the chips are down; and Edith Galt, Stood and did her duty as the wife
Of he sick husband President Wilson, when he suffered a massive stroke during his presidency, This brave First Lady, stood by her husband, and helped her incapacitated and ill husband to run the county, until his term of office was done.