Mr. and Mrs. President
From the Trumans to the Clintons
Second Edition, Revised
Gil Troy
April 2000
472 pages, 33 photographs, 6 x 9-1/4
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1034-1, $17.95 (t)
 It began with Eleanor and Franklin
Roosevelt. It accelerated with Jack and Jackie Kennedy. Lady
Bird and Lyndon Johnson became partners in office and Nancy and
Ronnie seemed joined at the hip. Without question, the presidential
couple has arrived as a force in politics. Yet surprisingly,
the electorate is not happy about it.
The emergence of the presidential couple is one of the most
important and contentious developments in America's postwar political
history. Its citizens' reaction to the First Couple reflects
the country's changing morality, its uncertain attitude toward
feminism, and the increasing power of the media. Gil Troy traces
these shifts through ten presidential marriages, from the homesick
tensions between Harry and Bess Truman to the very public scandals
endured by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Along the way, readers learn
of Mamie Eisenhower's perseverance on her husband's campaign
trail, Gerald Ford's embarrassment over Betty's outspoken honesty,
and the amazing political success of Nancy and Ronald Reagan's
partnership in office. With a new chapter devoted to Hillary
and Bill Clinton's tainted partnership in office and to our present
First Lady's senatorial ambitions, this edition of Gil Troy's
Mr. and Mrs. President offers fresh insights into America's
paradoxical expectations for its presidential wives and husbands.
"Troy argues that the rise of the First Couple is not
simply a function of the women's movement, but reflects a mixture
of factors, including the weakening of parties, the rise of personality
politics, the increasing power of the Presidency and the Federal
Government and perhaps, most important of all, the 'rise of the
mass media and the new political culture it spawned.'"--New
York Times Book Review
"A must read for anyone interested in serious discussion
of the power and influence of presidential spouses. It removes
these women from the roles associated with tea and china and
places them in the larger context of White House turf battles
and American ambivalence toward women and power. While I disagree
with his conclusions, I have not read a more provocative, thoroughly
researched, or readable account of these women. I recommend it
without reservation."--Allida Black, author of Casting
Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar
Liberalism
"Hillary Clinton should read Troy's book. Anybody who
wants to be First Lady should read it. Anyone married to a powerful
person, or thinking about marrying a powerful person, should
read it; in fact, everyone should. It's full of nuggets and insights
about marriage, power, and the presidency. I loved it."--Lesley
Stahl, CBS News
"A must read for anyone interested in the presidential
marriage. Recommended for a broad audience."--Presidential
Studies Quarterly
"An absorbing book full of surprising and fascinating
anecdotes."--Kirkus Reviews
"Deeply engrossing."--Publishers Weekly
"Thought provoking [and] convincing."--Library
Journal
GIL TROY, a native of Queens, New York, and professor of history at McGill University, is the author of Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady; Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s; and See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate. His commentaries on presidential politics have also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among other prominent publications.
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