Civil War Wives

July 13, 2009
The wives of abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld, Confederacy president Jefferson Davis and Union commander Ulysses S. Grant don't fit comfortably between one book's covers. Though they lived during roughly the same period, they differed in disposition, situation aspiration and gifts. But Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center historian Berkin (Revolutionary Mothers
) isn't out to create a group portrait. Instead, she wants to catch the realities of three “privileged, yet restricted” women and thus to reveal how even the most fortunate of wives—at least fortunate in the importance and celebrity of their husbands—struggled, not always successfully, to face down the difficulties of their sex. In this, Berkin is entirely successful. Her engaging prose and sympathetic posture bring the three women vividly to life. Weld, Davis and Grant were unrepresentative in their marriages but typical in their struggles to use their sharp minds to break free of the era's restrictions on married women. Even if they weren't, contrary to Berkin's hackneyed word, “heroes,” they pointed the way to what women's lives might—and eventually did—become. 6 photos.

June 15, 2009
Biography of three important women from the Civil War era.

The author of multiple books about women in colonial America, Berkin (History/Baruch Coll.; Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence, 2005, etc.) jumps ahead to the Civil War to investigate how these women's marriages to prominent men shaped their lives. Angelina Grimk Weld, who married abolitionist agitator Theodore Weld, was an outspoken proponent of abolition, racial equality and women's rights; Varina Howell Davis had a sharp mind and an independent streak that helped her fight for the freedom of her husband, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, after his postwar imprisonment; Julia Dent Grant found contentment in her domestic role as wife to Ulysses S. Grant and mother to four children. Any one of these women would make for an engaging biography, but Berkin uses their stories—reconstructed from their letters, diaries and speeches—to serve a larger theme: the female experience in the late 1800s. It often meant sublimation and compromise. Though Angelina Weld was an early star in the abolitionist movement, she submitted to quiet domesticity after her marriage. Varina Davis was often criticized by her husband for her lack of passivity, even though he said he treasured her"fine mind." Julia Grant so fully embraced the ideal of domestic life that she only found her voice, as a memoirist, in the last few years of her life. Indeed, as Berkin emphasizes in this probing sociological portrait, all three women"had access to the seats of power but no power themselves."

Berkin once again provides a fresh perspective on women in American history.

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July 15, 2009
This book examines how three women with very public lives grappled with the ideology of their separate spheres in an era of immense political and social upheaval. Angelina Grimke (180579), daughter of a Southern slaveholding family, defied her family to become the public voice of abolitionism during the 1830s, but retired from public life after her marriage to antislavery orator Theodore Weld. Varina Howell Davis (18261906), wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, struggled to meet her husband's expectations for a dutiful wife, but later drew on her independent spirit to survive defeat and disgrace. Meanwhile, Julia Dent Grant (18261902), wife of General and President Ulysses S. Grant, cheerfully embraced her role as wife and mother, striving to enhance her husband's life and legacy. Drawing primarily on memoirs and letters, Berkin (history, Baruch Coll. & CUNY Graduate Ctr.; "Revolutionary Mothers") succeeds in presenting the unique personality of each woman along with the momentous challenges each faced socially and personally. There are other works about these women separately, such as Joan E. Cashin's "First Lady of the Confederacy", and Gerda Lerner's classic, "The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina", while Ishbel Ross's "The General's Wife", written 50 years ago, is no longer in print. VERDICT Undergraduates will find Berkin's book a succinct source of reliable, scholarly information while general readers will enjoy the engaging stories.Linda V. Carlisle, Ph.D., Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2009
Professor Berkin, writing in a lively style, approaches the Civil War era from a feminist perspective, focusing on three women who married powerful men. In the reactions of the three to married life, Berkin finds not only a paradigm for the lives of privileged white women in the mid-1800s but also evidence of the second-class status of all women at the time. Angelina Grimke Weld was born into Charleston slave-holding gentry, but she grew to deplore enforced servitude and became a noted abolitionist speaker; her voice, however, waseventually overshadowed by the man she married, also a famous abolitionist speaker. Varina Howell Davis was the one and only First Lady of the Confederacy, but her difficutlties in that position, and in her married life with the buttoned-down Jefferson Davis, stemmed simply from her being too smart, too independent of mind, for what was considered appropriate for the eras distaff side. On the other hand, Julia Dent Grant, consort of general and president Ulysses Grant, was a model of genteel domesticityand a reminder of the rewards of the unexamined life. This finely nuanced, absorbing account makes an important contributionto both Civil War literature and the history of American women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)