Leo T. reviewed on 12/28/2019 + 1775 more book reviews

While coming from a Feminist view, Dr. Cook offers a carefully researched, detailed, and thought out biography of Mrs. Roosevelt during the first half of her time as First Lady. By using the expertise of archivists and putting her grad students to work, she plowed through the mountains of work generated by Mrs. Roosevelt. I was impressed that she visited the actual places that knew Mrs. Roosevelt. Professor Cook succinctly gives her readers context, such as mentioning the efforts of the Coolidge Administration to enact a child labor law, which remained unpalatable to many employers. "During the first months of the New Deal, several industries, including textiles, banned workers under the age of sixteen. But most industrialists preferred their economic traditions: Why hire a man for a dollar, or a woman for fifty cents, when you can hire a kid for a dime?"
The photos are well chosen; I liked best the one with Mary McLeod Bethune and one with Bernard Baruch. If you have time to read only one chapter, I suggest Chapter Three. Eleanor's championing the employment of Mrs. Nesbitt as housekeeper, a Hyde Park neighbor who needed a job, tells a lot about her relations with Franklin--Mrs. Nesbitt served quite dreadful meals.
Endnotes, bibliography, and index.

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