{"product_id":"first-family","title":"First Family","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eFINALIST FOR THE 2024 GEORGE WASHINGTON PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n“Well-researched … An intimate and authoritative history offering a close look at the original first family.”\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nAward-winning historian Cassandra Good shows how the outspoken step-grandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics, from the Revolution to the Civil War.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nWhile it’s widely known that George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, few are aware that they raised children together. In \u003cem\u003eFirst Family\u003c\/em\u003e, we see Washington as a father figure and are introduced to the children he helped raise, tracing their complicated roles in American history.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nThe children of Martha Washington’s son by her first marriage—Eliza, Patty, Nelly and Wash Custis—were born into life in the public eye, well-known as George Washington’s family and keepers of his legacy. By turns petty and powerful, glamorous and cruel, the Custises used Washington as a means to enhance their own power and status. As enslavers committed to the American empire, the Custis family embodied the failures of the American experiment that finally exploded into civil war—all the while being celebrities in a soap opera of their own making.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eFirst Family \u003c\/em\u003ebrings new focus and attention to this surprisingly neglected aspect of George Washington’s life and legacy, shedding a light on:\n\u003cul\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003eWhat it meant to be a “family”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003eThe complexities of kinship and race in the Custis family\u003c\/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003ePolitical power, fame, and the obsession with the celebrity\u003c\/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003eThe Custises’ probable Black half-sibling\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\nAs the country grapples with concerns about political dynasties and the public role of presidential families, the saga of Washington’s family offers a human story of historical precedent. Award-winning historian Cassandra A. Good shows how the outspoken step-grandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics from the Revolution to the Civil War.","brand":"Cassandra A. Good","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":51669560656178,"sku":"9781335449511","price":26.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0988\/7934\/0850\/files\/9781335449511.jpg?v=1789122464","url":"https:\/\/53rdstreetbooks.com\/products\/first-family","provider":"53rd Street Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}