A new feminist biography of the incomparably influential English historian Edward Gibbon, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.Even 250 years after it was first published, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire— Edward Gibbon’s six-volume chronicle of the late Roman and Byzantine periods—remains the best known work of history written in the English language. Gibbon’s flights of lyricism, his ironic obs...

An insightful biography of Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our nation's fatherThe Widow Washington is the first life of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother, based on archival sources. Her son's biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. But the records tell a very different story. Mary Ball, the daughter of a wealthy planter and a formerly indentured servant, was...

The Widow Washington is the first life of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother, based on archival sources. Her son's biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child.But the records tell a very different story. Mary Ball, the daughter of a wealthy planter and a formerly indentured servant, was orphaned young and grew up working hard, practicing frugality and piety. Stepping into Virginia's ...