1933 - 1938
Volume Two encompasses the monumental era of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the gathering storms of World War II - the years of the Roosevelts' greatest challenges and accomplishments. Cook restores Eleanor Roosevelt to her place as a visionary policy-maker and social activist with her own agenda, often ahead of her more circumspect husband. From the day ER entered the White House - and began holding press conferences for female journalists only - she worked indefatigably for justice and equality. She wrote, she published, she travelled, she lobbied, she joined grass roots organisations and radical communities with a zeal that sparked controversy everywhere.
Cook gives us the complete Eleanor Roosevelt - a loyal wife, a devoted mother, a woman who courted romance and adventure, America's most compelling, charismatic, and visionary First Lady. She took unpopular stands and often countered her husband's policies, particulary concerning racial justice, women's rights, the plight of refugees, and approaches to fascism and the Spanish Civil War. Intimate, sympathetic and acute, this is an unparalleled portrait of a woman whose life was filled with pasionate commitment and who struggled for personal fulfilment.
