STREAMING PROGRAM INFORMATION

• This program is part of our Smithsonian Associates Streaming series.
• Platform: Zoom
• Online registration is required.
• For multiple registrations, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses.

Growing up as a shy, self-conscious girl from a well-known wealthy family, Eleanor Roosevelt went on to become an influential first lady and an activist. She spent much of her life in the spotlight, yet few really knew her.

Drawing on his new book, Eleanor, biographer David Michaelis pulls back the curtain to delve into the inner life of one of the 20th century’s greatest figures. He recounts Eleanor’s troubled childhood with an alcoholic father and distant mother, her complicated marriage and partnership with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her trailblazing 12 years as first lady, and her humanitarian accomplishments.

Michaelis discusses her transformation from opponent of the 19th Amendment to one of the world’s foremost speakers and activists on behalf of women’s rights and traces the difficulties she underwent before becoming a race relations crusader. He also examines the complicated role Eleanor’s mother-in-law, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, played in her often-strained marriage to FDR, especially after the discovery of his infidelity with Lucy Mercer.

Michaelis is the New York Times bestselling author of Schulz and Peanuts and N. C. Wyeth, which won the Ambassador Book Award for Biography.

Copies of Eleanor (Simon & Schuster) are available for purchase from Politics and Prose.

Book Sale Information

• Purchase your copy of Eleanor by David Michaelis here.
• SPECIAL NOTE: Politics and Prose is offering a 10% discount to Smithsonian Associates ticket-holders. To claim your discount, enter the code SPECIAL10 in the “Coupon discount” section of Politics and Prose's check-out page.

Patron Information

• Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
• Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
• View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.