Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most important and powerful first ladies, one who faced (and sometimes stumbled over) many issues still with us today. Biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook, whose newest title completes her three-book series on Roosevelt, discusses her portrait of a modest and self-deprecating woman who grew into a moral force in a turbulent world. Cook’s first two volumes were both New York Times bestsellers.
Cook follows the arc of war and the evolution of a marriage, as the first lady realized the cost of maintaining her principles even as the country and her husband were not prepared to adopt them. Roosevelt continued to struggle for her core issues—economic security, New Deal reforms, racial equality, and rescue—when they were sidelined by FDR as he marshaled the country through war. The chasm between Eleanor and Franklin grew, and the strains on their relationship were as political as they were personal.
Roosevelt also had to negotiate the fractures in the close circle of influential women around her, but gained confidence in her own vision, even when forced to amend her agenda when her beliefs clashed with government policies on such issues as neutrality, refugees, and eventually, the threat of communism. Cook finds that the war years shaped Eleanor Roosevelt into the woman she became: a leader, visionary, and guiding light. FDR’s death in 1945 changed her world, but she was far from finished, returning to the spotlight as a crucial player in the founding of the United Nations.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years and After, 1939–1962 (Viking) is available for signing.
Smithsonian Connections
Though Eleanor Roosevelt was a regular presence on the radio during her White House years and the decades that followed, she stepped into an unexpected role in 1957: disk jockey. Though it’s hard to imagine the former first lady spinning Elvis Presley and Eddie Fisher 45s on request, she did just that on New York City’s WNYC to raise awareness for the March of Dimes charity. Read Smithsonian.com’s report on her appearance, and listen to some of her on-air patter with call-in listeners.
