Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons

A “spectacular…brilliantly and magnetically written” (Rosalie Abella,former Canadian Supreme Court justice) dual biography of two famous women whose sons would change the course of the 20th century—by award-winning historian Charlotte Gray. Born into upper-class America in the same year1854Sara Delano (later to become the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Jennie Jerome (later to become the mother of Winston Churchill) refused to settle into predictablesheltered lives as little-known wives to prominent men. Insteadboth women concentrated much of their energies on enabling their sons to reach the epicenter of political power on two continents. In the mid-19th centurythe British Empire was at its heightFrance’s Second Empire flourishedand the industrial vigor of the United States of America was catapulting the republic towards the Gilded Age. Sara and Jennieraised with privilege but subject to the constraints of women’s roles at the timelearned how to take control of their destinies—Sara in the prosperous Hudson Valleyand Jennie in the glittering world of Imperial London. Yet their personalities and choices were dramatically different. A vivacious extrovertJennie married Lord Randolph Churchilla rising politician and scion of a noble British family. Her deft social and political maneuverings helped not only her mercurial husband butonce she was widowedher ambitious sonWinston. By contrastdeeply conventional Sara Delano married a man as old has her father. But once widowedshe made Franklinher only childthe focus of her existence. Thanks in large part to her financial support and her guidanceFranklin acquired the skills he needed to become a successful politician. Set against one hundred years of historyPassionate MothersPowerful Sons is a “brilliantly conceived and wonderfully written” (Bob Raeauthor of What’s Happened to Politics?) study in loyalty and resilience. Gray argues that Jennie and Sara are too often presented as lesser figures in the backdrop of history rather than as two remarkable individuals who were key in shaping the characters of the sons who adored them and in preparing them for leadership on the world stage. Impeccably researched and filled with intriguing social insightsPassionate MothersPowerful Sons breathes new life into Sara and Jennieoffering a fascinating and fulsome portrait of how leaders are not just born but made.