A Founding Mother Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

About this book

Told in Abigail Adams's own voice, looking back from 1814 as Washington burns, this is the sweeping story of a woman who helped make a country. While her husband John rises from country lawyer to president and is away for years at a stretch, Abigail runs the farm and the family finances, raises their children through war and plague and loss, and offers the fearless political counsel behind his, including her famous plea to "remember the ladies." From revolutionary Boston to the courts of Europe to the parlors of the young republic, it is a portrait of a partner, mother, and stateswoman ahead of her time.

Discussion questions

1. The novel is narrated by Abigail herself, looking back near the end of her life. What was your first impression of her voice, and how did being inside her perspective shape the way you saw the Revolution?
2. This is a long, sweeping life story. If it ever felt like a lot to carry, which stretch of Abigail's life pulled you back in, the war years, the time abroad, or the years in power?
3. Abigail runs a farm, manages money, raises children, and advises a future president, all while being denied a formal role. Where did you most feel the gap between what she was capable of and what her era allowed her?
4. John is away for years at a time, and their marriage plays out largely across distance and letters. Did you read theirs as a true partnership of equals, and what did the separations cost each of them?
5. The book keeps returning to the women whose influence was written out of the founding story. What did it ultimately suggest about who really builds a nation, and whose work gets remembered?
6. Dray and Kamoie draw heavily on Abigail's real letters. How did that documentary texture affect your reading, and did knowing much of it was drawn from life change how the story landed?
7. The novel insists the Revolution was messy, contentious, and far from certain. How did seeing it from the home front, rather than the battlefield or the Congress, change your picture of that era?
8. Abigail's "remember the ladies" still echoes today. Did the book feel like a story about the past, a comment on the present, or both, and did anyone at the table land somewhere different?
9. Abigail held a family and a household together through long absences and repeated loss. Did her example make you think about the uncredited work that holds families or communities together now?
10. Who would you hand this to next, the history buff, the reader who loves a strong woman at the center, or someone marking the country's 250th year, and who might it not be for?

Themes to listen for

• Women's overlooked influence in the making of a nation
• Marriage as a partnership tested by distance
• Motherhood, sacrifice, and repeated loss
• Female independence within a constraining era
• The messy, uncertain reality of revolution

If your club liked this, try…

• America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
• My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
• The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
• A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Where to get it

• Check availability at your local library
• Find it on Bookshop.org
• Listen on Libro.fm

Practical notes

Best for clubs that like historical fiction and a strong woman at the center, and a timely pick for the country's 250th year. It is a long, immersive read, so allow a bit more time.

Content notes: War, plague, and the loss of children.