My mother turned me into a passionate fan of presidents and First Ladies at the age of four, when she took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency in 1960. During my first visit to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, NY, I discovered a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK, smiling broadly as they exited her cottage. It’s now the cover of my book, which follows the intriguing relationship between two of America’s most powerful political dynasties, sometimes allied and sometimes clashing, and how the future president and former First Lady found common ground to launch a women’s rights movement once Eleanor helped Jack win the White House.
I love this book because it made me feel as though I were having a conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt’s grandson, David, and was looking through the family photo album with him.
The book is filled with pictures of the Roosevelts, which transported me to their lives at home, in the White House, and around the world. I bought this coffee-table tome two decades ago at a bookstore in the famous Mall of America on a trip with my students to Minneapolis, and it launched my ongoing fascination with the First Lady.
Until her death when he was 20, David B Roosevelt enjoyed a close relationship with his Grandmere, Eleanor Roosevelt. Although she was admired by millions around the world, few people knew her as her loved ones did. Now David shares personal family stories and photographs that show Eleanor as she really was: passionate, vulnerable, courageous, and determined to live her private life according to the humanitarian ideals she cherished. From her unhappy, sheltered childhood to the powerful partnership forged by her marriage to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to her remarkable achievements as champion of human rights, this blend of fond…
I love this book because sometimes Eleanor Roosevelt seems like an unreachable icon, but this story by her friend Edna made me feel that “the First Lady of the World,” as Harry Truman labeled ER, was a real person with real feelings that I could relate to.
After FDR’s death, she needed someone to care for and who cared for her. Now I understand why she chose her young physician, David Gurewitsch, to be her companion.
The poignant and unforgettable true account of the deep, loving friendship between a handsome physician and the former First Lady, as seen on PBS’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
“I love you as I love and have never loved anyone else.” —Eleanor Roosevelt in a letter to Dr. David Gurewitsch, 1955
She was the most famous and admired woman in America. He was a strikingly handsome doctor, eighteen years her junior. Eleanor Roosevelt first met David Gurewitsch in 1944. He was making a house call to a patient when the door opened to reveal the wife of the…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I love this recent book because it took me to the Roosevelts’ Hyde Park/Val-Kill estate in New York’s Hudson River Valley, which is a magical place for those of us who love historic homes.
I never met Eleanor Roosevelt, but Nina, who lived near her grandmother in the later years of ER’s life, made me feel like I was having a meal with them at Val-Kill and traveling around the world with them to Iran, France, and Israel, where “Grandmère” was much admired.
A granddaughter's intimate portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt at her longtime home of Val-Kill as well as on a diplomatic trip to Europe and the Middle East.
When Nina Roosevelt was just seven years old, her family moved from California to live with her grandmother at the small cottage, Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, New York. It was at Val-Kill Farm that Nina shared her childhood years with her remarkable grandmother, the woman who would change her life. To Nina, she was Grandmere, but, to most everyone else, she was Eleanor Roosevelt. Few people realize how important Val-Kill was for Eleanor Roosevelt.…
I love historical fiction, so this compelling novel gave me one of those “what if,” alternative history feelings.
It had me wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt should have run for president and if she could have defeated Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The book made me want to flash back to that era and join the “ER for President” campaign! As a woman, I still am left to ponder when the U.S. will finally elect a female president.
It is a time of turmoil, with the nation mired in an unpopular war in Korea and with Senator Joseph McCarthy stirring up fear of a lurking Communist "menace." Racial discrimination is rampant. A woman's place is in the home. And when a shocking act of God eliminates the Democratic presidential nominee, the party throws its support to an unlikely standard bearer: former First Lady and goodwill ambassador to the world Eleanor Roosevelt.
Captivating and fast-paced, Eleanor vs. Ike pits the unforgettable Eleanor against the enormously popular war hero Gen. Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower. But while the opponents promise "an…
In 1913, a 15-year-old pregnant girl was found dead of apparent suicide. Dr. James Wilson, a new graduate and the first doctor ever to start a practice in this rural town, feels guilty over her death because of his delayed intervention.
I love this book because it made me feel completely connected to JFK’s life.
The story brought me into the Kennedy family, as if I were witnessing first-hand its rise to fame, sibling rivalries, and crushing tragedies. It also resonates with me because I first read it and got to know the author online during the COVID pandemic. Those types of links in that time of isolation made me feel more connected to the world.
Whenever I need to understand Jack Kennedy’s life, I pull this book from my shelf. I can’t wait to see Netflix’s series on this biography!
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president.
“An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR BY The Times (London) • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Sunday Times (London) • New…
Despite the diplomacy Eleanor Roosevelt displayed as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations, her disdain for 41-year-old Senator John F. Kennedy was obvious when she addressed him in a 1958 telegram as “My Dear Boy.” Nevertheless, he always treated her with respect, addressing her as “Mrs. Roosevelt,” even after becoming president.
For an experienced politician, descended from tough pols on both the Kennedy and Fitzgerald sides of his family tree, JFK almost seemed a tad naive in once asking a friend of Eleanor, “Why doesn’t Mrs. Roosevelt like me?” In addition to their policy differences, I observe that perhaps the former First Lady saw a bit too much of her unfaithful husband in the playboy image of young Jack Kennedy.
Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.
The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…
In This Together explores how we can harness our social networks to make a real impact fighting the climate crisis. Against notions of the lone environmental crusader, Marianne E. Krasny shows us the power of "network climate action"—the idea that our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire those close…
