While the Women's Rights convention was taking place at Seneca Falls in 1848, First Lady Sarah Childress Polk was wielding influence unprecedented for a woman in Washington, D.C. Yet, while history remembers the women of the convention, it has all but forgotten Sarah Polk. Bringing Sarah's story into focus, Amy Greenberg crafts a compelling portrait of this daughter of a frontiersman, a Tennessee girl raised to discuss politics and business with men. As her brilliant but unlikeable husband, James K. Polk, ascended to the White House, Sarah quietly manipulated elected officials, shaped foreign policy, and as Greenberg details here, directed a campaign in support of America's expansionist war against Mexico.

"Though largely forgotten, this concise but thorough biography brings [Sarah Polk] back into the light. An illuminating study of a nontraditional female powerhouse."—Kirkus Reviews