Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship Based on El, by Lash, Joseph P.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an exceptional political biography of one of the greatest teams of the 20C. You have FDR, a man of protean energies and charisma, coupled with a wife who brought her own talents and passions to the union. Though he was out in front, Eleanor clearly was a great force in the background, a conscience, choosing her causes, pushing Franklin, and staking out positions with great courage.
Unlike Roosevelt biographies up to this point, Eleanor dominates this one, with FDR's career a kind of frame of the development of her mind and activism. As daughter of Teddy Rooseveldt's elder brother - an alcoholic wastrel whom she loved and feared for - she was born to privilege, position, and private pain. There is a wonderfully horrific scene depicted when she witnessesed, as a pre-teen, her father get drunk in a club and then carried out, a humiliation that marked her deeply.
FDR chose her for marriage, in what Lash describes as a prescient political move: even though she was not as beautiful as the many available debutants of their class and milieu, she would support him and play her role to perfection as he entered electoral politics, subtly guiding him with an equal political genius. They came to embody the New Deal and all the reforms and experiments that period entailed, though again the details of this are in only the background of the book.
Interestingly, Lash covers how burdensome she found her role personally, how it wore her down emotionally and caused her to despair at the moment he was elected president. In this version, she was also unhappy with the intimate side of the marriage: she found sex a burden to bear, finally discovering that FDR was having an affair with her social secretary and friend, Lucy. This was the end of a phase of their relationship, when it became purely political and she started to pursue her own ambitions and projects, which required the same level of energy as did those of FDR. But she was always a quantity in formation and in motion - I will never forget about her decision, while in the car to the inauguration, to do something with her life when she heard the complaints of Hoover's wife, who said she was upset that everything wasn't going to be "done for her" anymore.
What Lash is so discreet about is Eleanor's own affairs with FDR's body guard in Albany and later with women. He indicates them only as an unproven possibility, when in fact there is ample evidence in other sources that essentially prove liasons. I know this from a personal connection with researchers who have proved this to me. Perhaps this somewhat puritan attitude dates the book, but it also avoids sensationalizing these relations at the expense of a deeper portrait of the times. This is my principal criticism of the book.
Recommended warmly.
Unlike Roosevelt biographies up to this point, Eleanor dominates this one, with FDR's career a kind of frame of the development of her mind and activism. As daughter of Teddy Rooseveldt's elder brother - an alcoholic wastrel whom she loved and feared for - she was born to privilege, position, and private pain. There is a wonderfully horrific scene depicted when she witnessesed, as a pre-teen, her father get drunk in a club and then carried out, a humiliation that marked her deeply.
FDR chose her for marriage, in what Lash describes as a prescient political move: even though she was not as beautiful as the many available debutants of their class and milieu, she would support him and play her role to perfection as he entered electoral politics, subtly guiding him with an equal political genius. They came to embody the New Deal and all the reforms and experiments that period entailed, though again the details of this are in only the background of the book.
Interestingly, Lash covers how burdensome she found her role personally, how it wore her down emotionally and caused her to despair at the moment he was elected president. In this version, she was also unhappy with the intimate side of the marriage: she found sex a burden to bear, finally discovering that FDR was having an affair with her social secretary and friend, Lucy. This was the end of a phase of their relationship, when it became purely political and she started to pursue her own ambitions and projects, which required the same level of energy as did those of FDR. But she was always a quantity in formation and in motion - I will never forget about her decision, while in the car to the inauguration, to do something with her life when she heard the complaints of Hoover's wife, who said she was upset that everything wasn't going to be "done for her" anymore.
What Lash is so discreet about is Eleanor's own affairs with FDR's body guard in Albany and later with women. He indicates them only as an unproven possibility, when in fact there is ample evidence in other sources that essentially prove liasons. I know this from a personal connection with researchers who have proved this to me. Perhaps this somewhat puritan attitude dates the book, but it also avoids sensationalizing these relations at the expense of a deeper portrait of the times. This is my principal criticism of the book.
Recommended warmly.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This biography is one of the best I have ever read. It is intimate, in that the author knew Eleanor in her later years,sensitive and well documented. The letters he had access to are wonderful to read also.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
reading in progress
I have only had this book a short time ,this is an onging read ,but have liked what I've read so far.
Published 1 month ago by Barbara Rickman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cherished Gift!
Purchased this as a gift for my elderly father who is taken by
the Roosevelts and was part of history in the making - as her
development of the Arthurdale, WV community... Read more
the Roosevelts and was part of history in the making - as her
development of the Arthurdale, WV community... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cathy B
3.0 out of 5 stars
Roosevelts, Franklin and Eleanor
This is a rather detailed biography of Eleanor Roosevelt's life from childhood to the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Penny
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well written
I had read this book many, many years ago but after revisiting the miniseries based on the book I went to look for my copy and, alas, it had disappeared. Read more
Published 12 months ago by JJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Thoughtful, Well Balanced Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
I wanted to read a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) partially because my deceased mother had told me that ER was a great woman. I totally agree with my mother. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Whetstone Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very pleased
The seller packaged the book very professionally. The book itself was in excellent condition.
I would buy from her again.
Thank you.
Sylvia
I would buy from her again.
Thank you.
Sylvia
Published on September 13, 2010 by Good foodie
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book about two great, decent people.
Eleanor and Franklin were no only heroes to millions of Americans, they were people who attained power without losing their humanity. Read more
Published on May 8, 2008 by Brian Keith O. Hara
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best biography I've read even better than Churchill's
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. Read more
Published on June 21, 2006 by Tiger
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