Synopses & Reviews
Eleanor Roosevelt was born into the privileges and prejudices of American aristocracy and into a family ravaged by alcoholism. She overcame debilitating roots: in her public life, fighting against racism and injustice and advancing the rights of women; and in her private life, forming lasting intimate friendships with some of the great men and women of her times.
This landmark biography provides a compelling new evaluation of one of the most inspiring women in American political history. Celebrated by feminists, historians, politicians, and reviewers everywhere, it presents an unprecedented portrait of a brave, fierce, passionate political lerader of our century.
Synopsis
The first volume in the life of America's greatest First Lady, "a woman who changed the lives of millions" (Washington Post).
Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. Three: 1938-1962, will be published in November 2016.
Eleanor Roosevelt was born into the privileges and prejudices of American aristocracy and into a family ravaged by alcoholism. She overcame debilitating roots: in her public life, fighting against racism and injustice and advancing the rights of women; and in her private life, forming lasting intimate friendships with some of the great men and women of her times. This volume covers ER's family and birth, her childhood, education, and marriage, and ends with FDR's election to the Presidency--the years of ER's youth and coming of age.
Celebrated by feminists, historians, politicians, and reviewers everywhere, Cook's trilogy is an unprecedented portrait of a brave, fierce, passionate political leader of our century.
About the Author
Blanche Wiesen Cook is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is senior editor of the Garland Library of War and Peace, author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One: 1884-1933 (available from Viking and Penguin), Crystal Eastman on Women and Revolution and The Declassified Eisenhower, and is a former vice-president for research at the American Historical Association.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgment
Introduction
1. Ancestry and Heritage
2. Elliott and Anna
3. Childhood of Tears and Loss
4. Years of Dreams and Longing
5. Allenswood and Marie Souvestre
6. Coming Out and Courting
7. Franklin and Me, and Sara Makes Three
8. Eleanor Roosevelt, Political Wife
9. The Roosevelts in Wilson's Washington
10. 1919 20: Race Riots and Red Scare, Grief and Renewal
11. The Campaign of 1920 and Louis Howe
12. ER and the New Women of the 1920s: Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, First Feminist Friends
13. Convalescence, Marital Unity, and Separate Spheres: Polio, Val-Kill, and Warm Springs
14. ER, Political Boss
15. New York's First Lady, Part-Time
16. Teaching and Todhunter
17. ER at Forty-five
18. Earl Miller: A Champion of Her Own
19. Assignment ER: Lorena Hickok and the 1932 Campaign
20. The First Lady's First Friend
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index