Long before Hillary Rodham Clinton, long before even Eleanor Roosevelt, the nation's first ladies have been important players in the American political landscape. It's just that most of the time they've not been recognized as such. Watson (political science, Univ. of Hawaii) analyzes the office of first lady and offers a paradigm for future study of that office. He looks at official duties, including the First Lady's roles as wife and mother, campaigner, and presidential spokesperson, and also offers rankings based on historical study and contemporary polls. Watson intends this work to begin to fill the gap left by presidential scholars, who have tended to overlook this aspect of the presidency. Recommended for collections of presidential scholarship.
