C-SPAN's year-long history series, "First Ladies: Influence and Image," aired in 2013 and 2014 and was devoted to revealing the private lives and public actions of 43 iconic American women.First Ladiescaptures the spirit of this special series by assembling its impressive collection of contemporary first ladies historians into book form. Their original interviews, condensed into an essay about each first lady, create intimate portraits of these women, their lives, ambitions, and their unique partnerships with their presidential spouses. Susan Swain and the C-SPAN team elicit the details that made these women who they were. You'll read how Martha Washington intentionally set the standards followed by first ladies for the next century; how Lucretia Garfield calmed the nation in the wake of her husband's shooting just four months into his presidency; and how Mamie Eisenhower harnessed the advent of television to reinforce her and her husband's positive public...