The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming examines the women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends and, often, partners in fame.

Fleming nimbly takes us through a great deal of early American history, as the founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and the public, often beset by a media just as gossip-seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He offers a powerful look at the challenges women faced at that time, which makes it all the more remarkable that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.

The Washington Post - Justin Moyer

JFK had Marilyn Monroe, and Bill Clinton had Monica, but that doesn't mean 20th-century presidents had all the fun. "Knowing and understanding the women in their lives adds pathos and depth to the public dimensions of the founding fathers' political journeys," Thomas Fleming writes in this well-researched peek into the boudoirs of America's political architects.

Thomas Fleming is the author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently, The Perils of Peace. He has been the president of the Society of American Historians and of PEN American Center. Mr. Fleming is a frequent guest on C-SPAN, PBS, A&E, and the History Channel. He lives in New York City.