Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers

I loved this book. The story is incredible and will make you very patriotic. After this read, I felt compelled to participate in my country's political process and volunteered in the 2008 presidential race (won't say which candidate).

The first time I read this book I felt as though I'd been pulled through a wringer. But I've gone back to it many times as I've learned more about these people. We're still learning new information about the Roosevelts as correspondence is still popping up. I've read most the major bios of the man and I have to say that the more I read the more I admire him, but the less I like him. Clementine Churchill, of all people, thought FDR the most self-centered/egotistical man she ever met. THAT's saying something! And he was. Eleanor is a constant source of wonder. I read Blanche Wiesen Cook's "Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1" before I read this, and most folks should probably do the same as Lash's book is a great deal in one gulp. But when the book is over you realize that the Roosevelts truly belonged in the White House as few have. An amazing read about an amazing life.

This is a bittersweet biography about Eleanor and Franklin that ends when FDR dies. Maybe that's why the novel is abit sad as it doesn't go on to Eleanor's triumphs post-FDR. Yes, Eleanor is a goody two shoes, that we know. And that we know ultimately enriched mankind. Because this book is about relationships rather than policy, it is easy to imagine how annoying Eleanor's goody two shoes nature can be very annoying to FDR. It is very tempting to pity Eleanor for FDR's infidelities in this book. I did but I know there was life after FDR for Eleanor so it eased my sadness. Overall, a well-written book authored by a man who admired and respected his subjects.

This is not a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt so much as an examination of her life with Franklin. Some of this story is heartbreaking, and one can only come away from this book blown away with wonder. The story stops with Franklin's death and its immediate aftermath. Since this moment also brings to Eleanor a bitter reaffirmation of Franklin's infidelity, it is very sad. And yet, who can stay upset for long with FDR, who sacrificed himself in the causes in which both he and Eleanor most fervently believed. The most interesting sections of the book to me related to the various campaigns and especially the historic third- and fourth-term campaigns. The 1940 election exposes the fragility of the presumably monolithic New Deal Coalition. Eleanor Roosevelt was a great politician. For many years an anti-suffragette, she evolved into one of the great pillars of the New Deal and one of the great architects of the post-WWII order through her role in the founding of the United Nations (a subject beyond the scope of this book). This is biography at its best.

I almost never read anything that can be even mildly construed as having to do with politics. I picked this up because I was going on a trip and it was long - 930 pages to be exact. I assumed it would be about Eleanor and her relationship with Franklin, not about him, and I was right. I really enjoyed reading about her childhood and young aduldhood. I never realized what an amazing person she was and how much she had to overcome. Yes, there were chapters in this book that I read with a somewhat dazed attention as they included far too many details about far too many people whom I had never heard of. But even in those chapters, Eleanor's light kept me reading.Highly recommended for its revelation of an extremely important American woman.