First ladies: from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama

Introduction

1: Setting precedents: the first Presidents' wives (1789-1829)

2: Young substitutes for First Ladies (1829-1869)

3: Three exceptions: Sarah Childress Polk, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Julia Dent Grant

4: Limited promise of the " New Woman" (1877-1901)

5: Office of First Lady: a twentieth-century development

6: Paradoxical 1920s

7: Breaking precedents and reaffirming old ones (1933-1961)

8: Turbulent sixties

9: New dimensions to the job of First Lady (1974-1993)

10: New generation in the White House (1993-2008)

11: Turning points

Notes

Appendices

Index

Photographs follow pages 118, 182, and 262