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heidilreads's review
5.0
A tale of limited feminism in a time of turmoil. I especially enjoyed the epilogue. I never say that, but it gives closure to ask them main characters/women after the window of time presented in the book.
xxstefaniereadsxx's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Capital Dames offered insight into the lives of women living during the Civil War period and the influence they had in society.
danaisreading's review against another edition
2.0
The women Cokie Roberts chose to write about are interesting, but there are quite a few of them stuffed into this book. They aren't organized in any way other than chronologically through the twenty year period. As a result, the book is really dense and hard to read. You can lose track of which woman you're reading about fairly easily. Obviously, there are exceptions like Mary Todd Lincoln, but there were times I had to backtrack to figure out who was being discussed and why.
buddy524's review
4.0
Such a well researched and well thought exploration of the effects of the Civil War on women in Washington. Roberts pulled me as she discussed various women during the time. She does a great of creating vignettes of certain events. As a whole the names and people got a bit overwhelming. Overall, a great read.
jmrprice's review
3.0
Always interesting to hear how women affected events, especially when they aren’t the prime focus of history.
tophat8855's review
4.0
I think I liked this one better than the one about the women at the founding of the country. I learned a lot about the eponym of the city of Fremont to the south of where I currently live. And frankly, a lot about a lot of the women of DC before and during the Civil War, which is the whole point of the book. So many parties and society nonsense. It feels very far from my own personal status in the world, but it makes me assume something similar still happens out there among government people: parties and political conniving and rubbing of shoulders that I have nothing to do with as a regular citizen. Very fascinating look into history.