New ‘American FLOTUS’ Episode Spotlights Scholars’ Book on First Ladies
The podcast examines first ladies as political assets, trendsetters, advocates and how they are portrayed in the media.
American FLOTUS, a podcast produced in partnership with the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE) with host Alan Lowe, presented its latest episode this week featuring scholars Lisa Burns and Teri Finneman discussing their book, The Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies.
The podcast entitled “The Many Roles of a First Lady from the White House to the Big Screen,” is a wide-ranging discussion about the Burns’ and Finneman’s recently released book that focuses on America’s first ladies with a thematic approach and includes chapters written by various scholars examining the role and the women in areas including wartime, international diplomacy, women’s rights, media and their legacies.
“You really get a chance to look at the institution as well as the individual, political, social, and cultural contributions that these women, at least so far, have made,” said Burns, a professor of media studies at Quinnipiac University in the episode. Burns’ research is focused on political communications, the media and society, and first ladies.
The organization of the book, according to Burns, allowed them to trace how the institution of first lady has evolved, how their traditions came about, and how the different roles the women have played expanded the institution. It also examines lesser known first ladies and their impact specifically in a chapter written by Mary Stockwell entitled “Neither Wives nor Companions: Nine ‘Stand-in’ First Ladies.”
“My area of emphasis is the forgotten first ladies like Grace Coolidge and Sarah Polk,” Finneman, a professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, said in the episode. “Like, people don’t even know these women existed at all. And, so, this chapter is just so interesting and it’s unfortunate how little we do know about some of these women.”
Another chapter, entitled “Legacy, Memorialization, and Public Memory,” by Barbara A. Perry, considers the difference the passage of time can make on first ladies legacies and the rethinking and recontextualizing of history that happens, according to Finneman, who focuses her research on the media and first ladies.
“And starting with Dolley Madison, you have this woman who for a long time portrayed in K-12 textbooks as this great hero, this great first lady, and now in more recent times we’re having more complex discussions about her and her role in slavery, and how she would not have been able to do what she did without slaves supporting her, helping dress her, helping earn money, helping her save items that were burned from the White House,” Finneman said.
Listen to the full episode here. A transcript of the episode is available on the FLARE website here.
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