PROGRAM

Roosevelt House is pleased to welcome Blanche Wiesen Cook to mark the publication of the long-awaited final volume of her definitive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years and After, 1939-1962 takes us through World War II, FDR’s death and the founding of the UN, following 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.

Blanche Wiesen Cook, distinguished professor of history at John Jay College (and Hunter College ’62) will discuss the intersections of Eleanor Roosevelt’s public and private lives, as a champion of 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, and the chasm that grew between them.

As Professor Cook will discuss, the years covered in this third volume made Eleanor Roosevelt the unique 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.

Professor Cook will be in conversation with Bill Goldstein, programming curator at Roosevelt House, and book critic for NBC’s Weekend Today in New York.

We hope you will join us for this important discussion examining  the life and legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman whose passion and commitment has inspired generations of Americans to seek a decent future for all people.