Florence Lathrop Page: A Biography - Hardcover

Funigiello, Philip J.

9780813914893: Florence Lathrop Page: A Biography

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813914892 ISBN 13: 9780813914893

Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr, 1994

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The story of Florence Lanthrop Page provides an opportunity for exporing larger historical questions of class, gender, and social milieu. It contributes to our knowledge of the influence of women in a social order which celebrated the achievements of men. Although she was self-effacing and "a paradigm of good manners" (virtues much admired by her second husband, Thomas Nelson Page), premature womanhood and economic emancipation brought out the decisive, capable, and independent aspects of her personality.

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About the Author

Philip J. Funigiello is Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Toward a National Power Policy: The New Deal and the Electric Utility Industry, 1933-1941 and American-Soviet Trade in the Cold War.

From Publishers Weekly

Chicago socialite Page (1858-1921) exemplified the changes that occurred as Victorianism gave way to the modern era, according to biographer Funigiello. Married into the Marshall Field family and widowed as a young mother, Page's affluence enabled her to exercise independence in her second marriage to Thomas Nelson Page, a novelist and U.S. Ambassador to Italy during WW I. Through her letters, Funigiello ( American-Soviet Trade in the Cold War ) documents Page's activities in Italy, including the relief programs she organized during the war and after the 1915 earthquake. Less convincing is the author's conjecture that since Page bore only two children in her first marriage and none in her second, she achieved sexual equality. Also questionable is his argument that Page should be called a feminist because she stretched gender barriers, when, on the evidence, she consistently supported male authority and conformed to the era's ideals of womanhood. Illustrations not seen by PW.

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