For those whose knowledge of early Washington and its politics is in need of repair, Parlor Politics provides a fresh perspective and rich details - history at its most readable. - Washington Post Book World Parlor Politics is a stimulating, lively, and subtle book that enlarges our understanding of how, in just half a century, Washington City became ... Read morean important world capital. - Wall Street Journal In her important and delightfully written book Parlor Politics, Catherine Allgor describes the various ways genteel elite women during the first decades of the nineteenth century used 'social events' and the 'private sphere' to establish the national capital and to build the extraofficial structures so sorely needed in the infant federal government. - New York Review of Books In this scholarly yet animated and thought-provoking analysis, Allgor presents her groundbreaking research on the critical role that women played in the early days of Washington politics. - Publishers Weekly A wonderful, scholarly book that will make historiographical waves for years to come. An alternative to Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, this book is a must for gender, social, cultural, and political historians and their students. - Choice Show Less