Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: The pageantry of power 1867 -- A gilded start -- Courtship and marriage -- Maternal bonds -- Making her own choices -- The final years -- Afterword: After lives.

Born into upper-class America in the same year, 1854, Sara Delano and Jennie Jerome refused to settle into predictable, sheltered lives as little-known wives to prominent men. In the mid-19th century, the industrial vigor of the United States of America was catapulting the republic towards the Gilded Age. Sara and Jennie, raised with privilege but subject to the constraints of women's roles at the time, learned how to take control of their destinies: Sara in the prosperous Hudson Valley, and Jennie in the glittering world of Imperial London. A vivacious extrovert, Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill; her deft maneuvering helped not only her husband but, once she was widowed, her son, Winston. Deeply conventional Sara Delano married a man as old as her father, but once widowed helped Franklin, her only child, acquire the skills he needed to become a successful politician. Gray argues that Jennie and Sara are remarkable individuals who were key in shaping the characters of the sons who adored them-- and in preparing them for leadership on the world stage. -- adapted from jacket.