First Lady Florence Harding: Behind the Tragedy and Controversy by Katherine A. S. Sibley (review)

Book Reviews 147 Katherine A. S. Sibley. First Lady Florence Harding: Behind the Tragedy and Controversy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. Pp. 336. Bibliographic essay. Index. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $34.95. Florence K. Harding has had a fairly bad press. Characterized in the historical literature as scheming, unpopular, “sexless,” and “domineering,” she has been reviled alongside her husband Warren G., who had his own problems while in the White House and whose presidential papers, a small portion of them anyway, were destroyed by a fire lit by Florence’s hand. If there were ever a First Lady who might benefit from historical revisionism, it is Florence Harding. Katherine Sibley has met that challenge admirably in this extensively researched full-length biography. Sibley reworks the starkly negative depiction of Florence Harding and notes that she was not only quite popular with the American public, but also a “transitional” First Lady, and as such laid the foundation for other activist First Ladies, mostly notably Eleanor Roosevelt. Harding relished the tasks traditionally demanded of a First Lady, yet she embraced a more modern outlook by taking an active interest in her husband’s career, as well as tackling issues dear to her own heart, such as veterans’ rights and animal welfare. Furthermore, she agreed with “her husband’s relatively progressive views on racial equality” (p. 6). Unlike her more private predecessor, Edith Wilson, Harding embraced the new popular culture of the 1920s and opened up the White House to a host of celebrities, movie stars, singers, and other personalities. She “worked tirelessly to expand the access and visibility of the White House” (p. 102). Although she was frequently exhausted (she suffered from kidney disease), Florence welcomed attention and enjoyed being in the public eye. She also championed women’s political activism, and as women had just won the right to vote, she campaigned vigorously for her husband and voted for him on Election Day. By all accounts, she was an effective organizer and campaigner, shepherding her husband through his schedule; insisting on running a homey, frontporch campaign; and gathering information from her own network of contacts about the vital political issues of the day. Mistakenly caricatured as a “drab” woman, Harding was a lively presence in her husband’s life and in the White House. She was musical and athletic (she enjoyed riding horses), and she was devoted to animals (especially dogs). She proved to be instrumental in her husband’s success at the Marion Daily Star and encouraged his political career (although they were both hesitant at first about Warren leaving the Senate to campaign for the presidency). Although Florence had to 148 Michigan Historical Review contend with her husband’s infidelities, their marriage remained a strong partnership until Warren’s untimely death on August 2, 1923. Florence Harding died one year later, and twelve thousand wellwishers attended her funeral in Marion, Ohio. Her life, as tragic and controversial it may have been, has finally received the serious attention that it deserves thanks to Katherine Sibley. Christine K. Erickson Indiana University Purdue University, Fort Wayne Jack R. Westbrook and Sherry S. Sponseller. Yesterday’s School Kids of Isabella County: A History of One-room Schools in Isabella County, Michigan. Mount Pleasant: ORSB Publishing, 2009. Pp. 238. Bibliography. Photographs. Paper, $23.50. The memories of a bygone era of rural Michigan townships and their one-room schoolhouses are quickly fading as the last generations of those who taught or were taught in those buildings disappear. In Yesterday’s School Kids of Isabella County: A History of One-room Schools in Isabella County, Michigan, Jack R. Westbrook and Sherry S. Sponseller have sought to renew interest in these schools. Primarily using photographs, the authors have created a history of more than one hundred Isabella County, Michigan, one-room schoolhouses, the students who attended them, and the teachers who worked there. The text accompanying the photos is a short history of the townships and schools, sometimes combining the reminiscences of the diaries and journals of those who were most involved with the schools. Although Westbrook and Sponseller’s work has a unique charm and inherent value to the historical community, it might have benefited...