Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3

The War Years and After, 1939-1962

By: Blanche Wiesen Cook

Narrated by: Eliza Foss

One of the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2016
One of NPR's 10 Best Books of 2016

"Heartachingly relevant...the Eleanor Roosevelt who inhabits these meticulously crafted pages transcends both first-lady history and the marriage around which Roosevelt scholarship has traditionally pivoted." -- The Wall Street Journal

The final volume in the definitive biography of America's greatest first lady.

“Monumental and inspirational…Cook skillfully narrates the epic history of the war years… [a] grand biography.” -- The New York Times Book Review


Historians, politicians, critics, and readers everywhere have praised Blanche Wiesen Cook’s biography of Eleanor Roosevelt as the essential portrait of a woman who towers over the twentieth century. The third and final volume takes us through World War II, FDR’s death, the founding of the UN, and Eleanor Roosevelt’s death in 1962. It follows the arc of war and the evolution of a marriage, as the first lady realized the cost of maintaining her principles even as the country and her husband were not prepared to adopt them. Eleanor Roosevelt continued to struggle for her core issues—economic security, New Deal reforms, racial equality, and rescue—when they were sidelined by FDR while he marshaled the country through war. The chasm between Eleanor and Franklin grew, and the strains on their relationship were as political as they were personal. She also had to negotiate the fractures in the close circle of influential women around her at Val-Kill, but through it she gained confidence in her own vision, even when forced to amend her agenda when her beliefs clashed with government policies on such issues as neutrality, refugees, and eventually the threat of communism. These years—the war years—made Eleanor Roosevelt the woman she became: leader, visionary, guiding light. FDR’s death in 1945 changed her world, but she was far from finished, returning to the spotlight as a crucial player in the founding of the United Nations.

This is a sympathetic but unblinking portrait of a marriage and of a woman whose passion and commitment has inspired generations of Americans to seek a decent future for all people. Modest and self-deprecating, a moral force in a turbulent world, Eleanor Roosevelt was unique.

Excellent history of Eleanor Roosevelt

The material presented is stimulating and thorough. Well written and accurate and narrated as if it were a romance. What happened to the narrator for volume 2 of this biography? I so enjoy a good history that conveys not only the story of the main players but brings the reader into the environment of the events. This biography does provide that content;however the narrator who has a lovely voice sounded as if she were sharing a romantic novel rather a picture of a primary player in the events of the 20th Century.

What a woman!

This series of three books on the life of Eleanor Roosevelt not only told about an amazing woman,whose passions resound in society still, but filled in a bunch of gaps in my history from school.
I’m not sure I could have read these books but am delighted to have listened.

E R's efforts

Eleanor Roosevelt was a person born to activism and fairness. Sorry to say, many of her efforts have not been noted or acknowledged until now. If we had done our work then, Trump wound not be alining his dictatorship now.

JES

An American Visionary

I will start by saying that I was worried, rightly as it turned out, that I would miss Kate Reading as the voice of this book. Eliza Foss had big shoes to fill as a narrator and she came up short by a lot. From mispronunciation of words and names to a voice unsuitably adolescent in timbre, Foss's performance was not so much bad as mediocre. Fortunately, not even a mismatched narrator can lessen the enjoyment of learning about Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt was such a visionary, such an idealist, that her humanity leaps off the page. Her absolute decency and broad-mindedness were outstanding qualities; unfortunately, her husband was not as idealistic but then again the author may have judged him too harshly since he had to be elected and work with an increasingly rebellious Congress. Still, so many of the issues that threaten to tear our nation apart were prefigured during her time as First Lady and our inability or unwillingness to address these issues (eg wage gap, systemic racism, etc.) will continue to contribute to unrest and disaffection. Eleanor saw this and fought for justice for all.

This is the weakest of the three volumes because it seems more superficial and to relegate the 17 plus years of her life after her husband's death to an epilogue seems insulting. Her efforts on behalf of peace and making the world a better place are given a skimpy overview after FDR's death in Warm Springs. Disappointed that Cook treated her thus--like a typical male author might have ended the narrative once her important spouse was gone.

More on ER's final days wanted

The narrator changed and I preferred the previous. Mainly I didn't like that she pronounced names of people from previous books in the series differently. Also, there was nothing about ER final days, how she dies, personal life after FDR died. Nothing about how kids and grandkids fared later on. Who did she live with? What happened to Hick? I did appreciate the UN info.