The autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

by Eleanor Roosevelt

Paper Book, 1992

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Da Capo Press, 1992.

Description

Now back in print, a candid and insightful look at an era and a life through the eyes of one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century, First Lady and humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt. The daughter of one of New York's most influential families, niece of Theodore Roosevelt, and wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt witnessed some of the most remarkable decades in modern history, as America transitioned from the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and the Depression to World War II and the Cold War. A champion of the downtrodden, Eleanor drew on her experience and used her role as First Lady to help those in need. Intimately involved in her husband's political life, from the governorship of New York to the White House, Eleanor eventually became a powerful force of her own, heading women's organizations and youth movements, and battling for consumer rights, civil rights, and improved housing. In the years after FDR's death she became a U. N. Delegate, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, a newspaper columnist, Democratic party activist, world-traveler, and diplomat devoted to the ideas of liberty and human rights. This single volume biography brings her to life through her own words, illuminating the vanished world she grew up, her life with her political husband, and the postwar years when she worked to broaden cooperation and understanding at home and abroad.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member GaltJ
What a fascinating woman and what a dry, boring book! I must find a biography of Eleanor!
LibraryThing member nicky_too
Eleanor Roosevelt had a very nice writing style. Her autobiography is very easy to read and quite insightful.

I think she was proof that wisdom does come with age. For the time she must have been quite something. She was definitely a woman with an opinion. Reading about all her travels I also find
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interesting. I like the fact she is quite down to earth and to the point about everything that's included in this book.

However, once again I picked up a book about (and this time also by) and American and the anti-communist thing is getting sooooo old. Thankfully we have history after her death to prover her ideas wrong. Also the view of America as world leader is even older and boring! Again, history is proving her wrong.

Besides those two things I find this book very interesting and it gives a nice view of the times and her personal development.
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LibraryThing member alwright1
I got into reading about past Presidents around the time of the inauguration and became very curious about Eleanor Roosevelt when reading about her husband. After reading this three-volume autobiography, I am no longer curious, but I have even more admiration.

If you're very curious about her
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childhood, then by all means read the first volume, but if not, read the wikipedia article for a summary and skip to the good stuff. The second volume covers her years in the White House and contains many observations about the world and the US at the time. She definitely transforms from a woman unsure of herself at the beginning of her family life to an insightful commentator on world events. Roosevelt spends more time in the third volume detailing her own worldview as a member of the UN delegation and Civil Rights committee. The topics on which she spends the most time are colored heavily by the mounting Communist threat at the time she wrote that volume (around 1961), but her convictions that all people deserve basic human rights and that we all have a responsibility to bring about a world in which possession of these rights are the bare minimum to be expected are still as prescient and important today as ever. I enjoyed getting to know Eleanor thoroughly.
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LibraryThing member mahallett
the best of my life
a great life. many things about frankie and her kids left out but she can do that.
LibraryThing member lgaikwad
I didn't give this book 5 stars due to its entertainment value or writing style, but for its articulation of her values, trajectory of her personal growth, information, and inspiration. I'm glad I listened to her speak in her own voice before reading anyone else's perspective on her life and
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thoughts.
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Language

Original publication date

1960

Physical description

xix, 454 p.; 23 cm

ISBN

9780306804762

Local notes

Autobiography
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