Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal And Public Life

by oscar-handlin

"Those who encountered American women commenented on their elevated status, allowed to expand their minds, and gardians of the culture. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the number who worked at home or in factories steadily increased. But women of the middle classes were pampered, elevated on pedestals away from the cares of the workaday world and guarded against all unpleasantness. One of them was Eleanor Roosevelt, daughter of a well-to-do family, bearer of a distinguished name, favored by fortune in every respect. Eleanor was self-educated, made an acceptable marriage, bore an appropriate number of children. But she had a sense of emptiness and spent her life learning her function in life. Her life extended across three wars, across depressions and political and economic changes. She became familiar with the misery of her fellow countrymen and women not as well situated as she. Sensitivity to their situation drew her away from the sheltered round of social activities expected of women in her class. After her husband's election to the Presidency in 1932, she gained insight into twentieth-century social problems and steadily expanded the scope of her interests and who will always be remembered as a remarkable woman."

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984