1884 - 1933
Eleanor Roosevelt (1844-1962), wife of President Franklin D Roosevelt, is the most important woman in American political history, and in this definitive biography, ten years in the making, Blanche Wiesen-Cook re-creates her in all of her roles - as a visionary, an activist, a political wife, and a woman, far more independent that we knew. No other First Lady has had a greater influence on the course of democracy in this century, and no other book about Eleanor Roosevelt captures the complexity of her character - her wit, her passion, her boldness, and her commitment to greater dignity and security for all women and men.
Born into the American aristocracy and into a family ravaged by alcoholism and self-destruction, Eleanor Roosevelt learned, rather than inherited, her progressive views. Though steeped in the sensibilities of the Old South with its facile prejudice against Blacks and Jews, she became an antiracist activist, an eloquent spokesperson for peace, and was by the early 1920s the most significant woman in democratic politics. Blanche Wiesen-Cook's access to new archives, her superb insights, and her respect for her subject contribute a new perspective not just on Eleanor Roosevelt but on the world of politics in which she thrived.
