Product Description

In the words of Arthur Schlesinger, Eleanor & Franklin "is a beautiful book - beautiful in its scholarship, insight, objectivity and candor." Joseph Lash was secretary and confidant to Eleanor Roosevelt. His book was made into the PBS special of the same name.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #651581 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 768 pages

About the Author
Joseph Lash won a Pulitzer prize for this biography. he was a longtime associate of Eleanor Roosevelt and is also the author of Eleanor: The Years Alone.

Customer Reviews

two giants of the American century, together and apart
This is not a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt so much as an examination of her life with Franklin. Some of this story is heartbreaking, and one can only come away from this book blown away with wonder.

The story stops with Franklin's death and its immediate aftermath. Since this moment also brings to Eleanor a bitter reaffirmation of Franklin's infidelity, it is very sad. And yet, who can stay upset for long with FDR, who sacrificed himself in the causes in which both he and Eleanor most fervently believed.

The most interesting sections of the book to me related to the various campaigns and especially the historic third- and fourth-term campaigns. The 1940 election exposes the fragility of the presumably monolithic New Deal Coalition.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a great politician. For many years an anti-suffragette, she evolved into one of the great pillars of the New Deal and one of the great architects of the post-WWII order through her role in the founding of the United Nations (a subject beyond the scope of this book).

This is biography at its best.

Inspiring and engrossing
I almost never read anything that can be even mildly construed as having to do with politics. I picked this up because I was going on a trip and it was long - 930 pages to be exact. I assumed it would be about Eleanor and her relationship with Franklin, not about him, and I was right. I really enjoyed reading about her childhood and young aduldhood. I never realized what an amazing person she was and how much she had to overcome.

Yes, there were chapters in this book that I read with a somewhat dazed attention as they included far too many details about far too many people whom I had never heard of. But even in those chapters, Eleanor's light kept me reading.

Highly recommended for its revelation of an extremely important American woman.

Our Only 4 term President and the Wife who made it Possible
Excellent history of Eleanor, her childhood which was difficult because her wonderful mother died when Eleanor was 8 years old. Her father, Elliott Roosevelt, brother of President Theodore was an alcoholic and ineffective as a father. Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandparents, the Halls who lived in a mansion in Tivoli N.Y. on the Hudson River. Eleanor grew up to be a woman of deep intellect and great charm. Franklin relied on her advice when making major decisions. They had marital problems because of his dalliances but there was a lot of love and understanding because they had the common goal of serving the country with honesty and loyalty during the depression years and during World War II.