Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution

Author:	Vaill, Amanda
Binding:	Hardcover
List Price:	$50.00
Our Price:	$6.65 CAD
Sale Price:	5.98 CAD
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Additional Info
Overview

ISBN:	9780374254377
Publisher:	Farrar Straus Giroux
Language:	English
Page Count:	704
Publication Date:	10/21/2025
Size:	9.50" l x 6.50" w x 1.50"
Series:	N/A

Category	Subject
Biography & Autobiography	Historical
Biography & Autobiography	Women
History & Geography	United States

America’s Founding Era is reconsidered through the lives of two women as formidable as—and in some respects stronger than—the men they loved, married, and mothered.

Angelica and Elizabeth Schuyler, born to wealth and privilege in New York’s Hudson Valley during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were raised to make good marriages and supervise substantial households. Instead, they became embroiled in the turmoil of America’s insurrection against Great Britain—and rebelled themselves, in ways as different as each one from the other.

The more glamorous Angelica eloped with a war profiteer, led a luxurious life in Europe, charmed statesmen like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and leveraged the social circles of the age; the more reserved Elizabeth married Alexander Hamilton, served as his support system, and after his death navigated widowhood and influence. Amanda Vaill uses deep archival research—previously unpublished letters and records—to interweave these sisters’ stories within the larger tapestry of the Revolution.

The book draws a rich portrait of shifting loyalties, intimate power, wealth, ambition, legacy, and the intricate social webs of a young nation at war with itself and forging its future.

“Marvelous … an act not only of recovery, but of world building … Vaill’s historical and literary achievement is to convey what it felt like to be a woman who … longed ‘to put her fingertips to history,’ even if she touched it only softly.” — Jane Kamensky

“An engaging blend of perceptive biography and vivid narrative history.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Women of the founding generation cope with war, infidelity, and catastrophic duels while claiming their own agency … It’s an elegant and entertaining account of the surprisingly modern lives of founding women.” — Publishers Weekly