Eleanor by David Michaelis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very pleasant surprise. A lot of it wasn't that new because I've read and watched a few documentaries on First Lady Eleanor and just how much she informed and shaped FDR's presidency, but there is something really comforting about a well-written account.

Frankly, she was something of a heroine. She was a genuinely good person who was willing and able to squarely face poverty and racism and meet the problem with courage and charm. I believe she was FDR's conscience, his heart. She pursued goals that made her extremely well-loved by almost everyone.

As far as I'm concerned, here are a few of the most important bits: She was a one-woman equal rights activist, an anti-poverty heroine, a tireless champion of anti-prejudice, an exposer of ignored atrocities, and, as I've said, a genuinely good person.

She used her native intelligence and vitality to give voice to so many problems in American society during a time where most were swept under the rug and kept mum in the media. Between the lynchings to gay rights to concentration camps overseas or right on American soil, women's rights, communist witch hunts, or the endlessly horrible effects of hidden poverty, she was always right there, shining a light on the problems.

She was a great person.

I appreciate her all the more today. We need someone just like her, with that much of a platform, with as much of a good heart. We need her more today than we've ever needed her.

SIGH. Good people need platforms.



View all my reviews