Better Half E2 - Scalawags, Carpetbaggers, And The Gospel Of Wealth 1865 - 1933

Scattered Curiosities

This is the second apportionment of our four-part Better Half mini-series containing four lectures regarding the First Ladies of the United States within the Reconstruction Era, the Gilded Age, through total global interwar, the Mad Decade, and up to the brink of the Dirty Thirties. The sixty-eight-year span features a shy First Lady entreating the Queen of Hawaii, a cross-eyed, anti-suffragist equestrian (with a strict dress code) battling polygamy, and a tee-totaling, guitar-playing FLOTUS hosting weekly gospel sings with a band of cabinet members. The White House Lawn Easter Egg Roll becomes tradition, the billiard room converted to a greenhouse, Christmas Trees, apparitions, and Einstein make their debut appearance there, and the term "First Lady" finally appears in the press. A long list of First Ladies volunteer for the newly formed American Red Cross, the premier Presidential Library is established, a serving First Daughter has a hit song with Columbia Records, a string of First Sisters denounce women's suffrage, the Statue of Liberty is dedicated, a future FLOTUS pulls a reverse Footloose on her fiancée, the United States has its first and only non-consecutive serving First Lady, another that secretly runs the government for seventeen months, and a public confrontation with the Commander in Chief's mistress. As a bonus, we will visit the Women's World Fair with a FLOTUS who taught the deaf, decipher private conversations of the only First Couple to speak Mandarin fluently, and indulge in Waffle Mania.