prof. ellis: we last saw abigail adams giving birth to four children, five really. over a 12 year period. the question i asked you is, how should we assess her role in the coming of the american revolution? to what extent is it sexist or just the opposite of that, to call attention to the fact that the dominant events in her life are biological, rather than, political? if you are someone who wants to be true to the experience of women at this time, does that mean you are going to be not interested in the political story? the political story for them is about a lot of things. you know what i'm getting at here. a couple of comments, if we possibly can. yes? where are you from, maryellen? student: west chicago, 30 miles west of chicago. prof. ellis: that is really west. student: i am thinking of catherine al gore's book. prof. ellis: she was a student of mine. student: that makes sense why i enjoyed the book. prof. ellis: tell us what that is. student: it's about how people like abigail adams and ma

prof. ellis: catherine's book is mostly about early 19th-century presidential politics. student: i'm thinking that appeals to abigail as well. prof. ellis: it's the dolly madison principle. every guy needs a dolly madison-- abigail and dolly. -- ain't dolly. abigail is like eleanor roosevelt. dolly is the one for whom they coined the term first lady. abigail is never a first lady. copartner in a sense. in that sense -- i will tell you for sure, you can conjure her up. if we could just read her letters back to her sisters, on what was most important to her. her role as a mother. she doesn't think of that as constricting or anything like that. that said, she straddles the click world. -- the click world. she is reading these newspapers that john is writing. at this time, you can't get direct evidence of how influential she is. later on you get it. you have to assume that you did not get it before because they were together at the same time. i read that she was herself part of the thought process th