Angelica

For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution

By: Molly Beer

Narrated by: Rachel Yong

Few women of the American Revolution have come through 250 years of US history with such clarity and color as Angelica Schuyler Church. She was Alexander Hamilton's "saucy" sister-in-law, and the heart of Thomas Jefferson's "charming coterie" of artists and salonnières in Paris. Her transatlantic network of important friends spanned the political spectrum of her time and place, and her astute eye and brilliant letters kept them well informed.

A woman of great influence in a time of influential women (Catherine the Great and Marie-Antoinette were contemporaries), Angelica was at the red-hot center of American history at its birth: in Boston, when General Burgoyne surrendered to the revolutionaries; in Newport, receiving French troops under the command of her soon-to-be dear friend Marquis de Lafayette; in Yorktown, just after the decisive battle; in Paris and London, helping to determine the standing of the new nation on the world stage.

In this enthralling and revealing woman's-eye view of a revolutionary era, Molly Beer breathes vibrant new life into a period usually dominated by masculine themes and often dulled by familiarity. In telling Angelica's story, she illuminates how American women have always plied influence and networks for political ends, including the making of a new nation.

©2025 Molly Beer (P)2025 Highbridge Audio

Her interesting life

Biography of Angelica Schuyler Church. Well written and well presented. Author provided wonderfully written context.

A new perspective on the era

listening to the events from the perspective of a leading female socialite of the revolutionary era gives you a better sense of what life in those years look like and what such a woman might be influencing (through her relationships) and what she shared in her private correspondence

This gives the reader a long overdue account of the women who made the American revolution a success.

So well told. Stunned by how long it took for the USA to give women the right to vote. Between the lines is a tale of misogyny.