Cook’s Eleanor Roosevelt, a selection of my book group, is not one I would have picked up on my own. I’m glad to have read it, though, especially in the current political season. Eminently readable, ER the book carefully documents Roosevelt’s life up till FDR was elected president. It ends with a huge list of notes and sources; only a few notes interrupt the text.
ER the person is a fascinating companion for the 500+ pages. Born into an aristocratic family plagued by alcoholism and depression, she goes on to become one of the most influential women in politics, though her work was frequently behind the scenes. She was a tireless and diplomatic supporter of both her husband and of women’s causes, even when these sometimes (and they often did) diverged. It was a good reminder that many of the things we take for granted–forty-hour work weeks, 8-hour workdays, maternity healthcare and leave, among many other things–were things other women worked to bring into law.
Much that’s been written on the lives of ER and FDR focuses on their extramarital relationships. I found that Cooke carefully detailed the evidence for these, while also showing that the two had a supportive, loving marriage in other ways, and one that enabled each of them to go on to significant personal success and accomplishment. Their marriage, like ER as a person, was complicated.
The narrative sometimes jumped around in time, and Cooke so often listed the many upper-class companions of the Roosevelt’s lives that I skimmed them. Further, family trees or an index of people along with their nicknames would have been very helpful. Many people had more than one nickname; it was hard to follow, and I wished also for some explanation of where the panoply of alternate names came from. But the book overall was so thorough and so engaging, like its subject, that these are minor complaints about a work I enjoyed and learned from.