Just Jennifer

The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (Harper Perennial, reprinted October 2014)

Eleanor Roosevelt (born Anna---Theodore’s niece) was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, married her cousin (to the dismay of her mother-in-law) in 1905, bore six children, was first lady for twelve years beginning in 1933 and served on many councils, presidential commissions and was a delegate to the United Nations before her death in 1962.  Roosevelt watched as the United States went from the Gilded Age into the First World War and into a deep depression, events that couldn’t help but shape her philosophies and sensibilities.  During her husband’s presidency, Roosevelt faced America coming out of the Great Depression, the world at war once again and the United States’ entry into what would become World War II.  She stood by her husband’s side, and alone, as she travelled throughout the country she loved, fighting for civil rights, women’s rights and welfare for all.  She toured war torn countries with Franklin Roosevelt meeting world leaders, staying active in the Democratic Party after his death in 1945.  Roosevelt quickly became a role model for women with her staunch commitment to high ideals and her ability to humanize people and problems without minimizing them.  Her role as a humanitarian and wise woman became her legacy after her death in 1962.  Widely recognized as Franklin Roosevelt’s wife, companion and partner, a great deal of her achievements happened in the eighteen years after his death.  Her autobiography is frank and practical, much as the woman herself, and needs to be read by a new generation of not only women, but men as well, her life one to be emulated.