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A vivid biography of former First Lady Barbara Bush, one of the most influential and under-appreciated women in American political history. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 13.3px Times; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; background-color: #ffffff} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 13.3px Times; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 13.3px Times; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} Barbara Pierce Bush was one of the country's most popular and powerful figures, yet her full story has never been told.THE MATRIARCH tells the riveting tale of a woman who helped define two American presidencies and an entire political era. Written by USA TODAY's Washington Bureau chief Susan Page, this biography is informed by more than one hundred interviews with Bush friends and family members, hours of conversation with Mrs. Bush herself in the final six months of her life, and access to her diaries that spanned decades. THE MATRIARCH examines not only her public persona but also less well-known aspects of her remarkable life. As a girl in Rye, New York, Barbara Bush weathered criticism of her weight from her mother, barbs that left lifelong scars. As a young wife, she coped with the death of her three-year-old daughter from leukemia, a loss that changed her forever. In middle age, she grappled with depression so serious that she contemplated suicide. And as first the wife and then the mother of American presidents, she made history as the only woman to see -- and advise -- both her husband and son in the Oval Office. As with many women of her era, Barbara Bush was routinely underestimated, her contributions often neither recognized nor acknowledged. But she became an astute and trusted political campaign strategist and a beloved First Lady. She invested herself deeply in expanding literacy programs in America, played a critical role in the end of the Cold War, and led the way in demonstrating love and compassion to those with HIV/AIDS. With her cooperation, this book offers Barbara Bush's last words for history -- on the evolution of her party, on the role of women, on Donald Trump, and on her family's legacy.Barbara Bush's accomplishments, struggles, and contributions are many. Now, Susan Page explores them all in THE MATRIARCH, a groundbreaking book certain to cement Barbara Bush as one of the most unique and influential women in American history.
About the Author
Repeat Oprah guest Susan Page has been conducting workshops for both singles and couples, nationally and internationally since 1980. She has keynoted dozens of relationship conventions and was invited to share the platform with John Gray at his recent Masonic Auditorium event in San Francisco. Her international speaking and media career has taken her to twenty-six states, Canada, Korea, Australia, and Mexico. She is a past chapter president of the National Speakers Association.Page was a consultant to writer/director Gary Goldberg on the movie Must Love Dogs, released by Warner Pictures in August of 2005.A veteran of national television and radio, Susan Page has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, CNN, NPR, Donahue, Geraldo, Leeza, Montel Williams, Sonya Live, The Diane Rehm Show plus dozens of other radio and TV shows across the country.Excerpts of Susan's works have appeared or been reviewed in People Magazine, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Glamour, Self, New Woman, McCall's, Woman, Marriage and scores of other publications.Susan Page is the author of four books about relationships plus a publishing guide for writers.Her first book, If I'm So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single? has been translated into twenty foreign languages. It was the number one bestseller in Russia in 1994. Page's books have sold more than a million copies in the U.S. and worldwide.Susan Page is a graduate of Oberlin College and holds a Master of Divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She began her career as campus minister at Washington University in St. Louis and at Columbia University in New York. Later, she served as Director of Women's Programs at the University of California, Berkeley, where she helped found the nation's first university-based human sexuality program.When she is not conducting workshops in the United States, Susan Page lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with her husband of twenty-five years.
