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Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson 

byRebecca Boggs Roberts

Rebecca Boggs Roberts traces Edith Bolling Galt Wilson's rise from an impoverished Virginia childhood to the center of presidential power. After Woodrow Wilson suffered a devastating stroke in 1919, Edith controlled access, screened decisions, and helped determine what information reached the incapacitated president. The biography examines her influence without accepting either the claim that she formally became president or the excuse that she merely protected her husband. Roberts explores ambition, devotion, secrecy, and constitutional uncertainty, revealing how gendered assumptions both enabled Wilson's hidden authority and obscured its democratic consequences.

Publisher

Penguin Publishing Group

Publication date

2023

Format

Print edition

Pages

320

ISBN

9780593489994