The Roosevelt Women [Hardcover]

Betty Boyd Caroli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1998

The Roosevelt name conjures up images of powerful Presidents and dashing men of high society. But few people know much about the extraordinary network of women that held the Roosevelt clan together through war, scandal, and disease. In The Roosevelt Women, Betty Boyd Caroli weaves together stories culled from a rich store of letters, memoirs, and interviews to chronicle nine extraordinary Roosevelt women across a century and a half of turbulent history.She examines the Roosevelt women as mothers, daughters, wives, and, beyond that, as world travelers, authors, campaigners, and socialites—in short, as themselves. She reveals how they demonstrated the energy and intellectual curiosity that defined their famous family, as well as the roles they played in the intrigues, scandals, and accomplishments that were hallmarks of the Roosevelt clan. From the much maligned Sara Delano (who sired Franklin and by turns terrified and supported Eleanor) to Theodore’s irrepressible daughter, Alice (”I can either rule the country or control Alice,” Teddy once said) to the beloved Bamie, who was the only mother Alice ever knew, and the model of everything she never was in life, to the exceptionally beautiful but ultimately overwhelmed Mittie, Theodore’s mother, The Roosevelt Women is an intricate portrait of bold and talented women, a grand tale of both unbearable tragedies and triumphant achievements.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First Ladies Eleanor (Franklin's wife) and Edith (Theodore's) are both subjects of full-scale biographies, and Theodore's daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth remains legendary for her caustic wit. In this book, historian Betty Boyd Caroli looks at seven additional powerful Roosevelt women (the family didn't seem to produce or marry any other kind) and notes some intriguing similarities despite the political differences that divided "Theodores" (stalwart Republicans like Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and her daughter, Corinne Robinson Alsop) and "Franklins" (Democrats such as Sara Delano Roosevelt, unjustly caricatured as the mother-in-law from hell). All these women descended from Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, a Georgia belle who married North and kept her Confederate sympathies quiet; they all were unusually independent and outspoken for women born in the 19th century; and several compensated for unsatisfying marriages with intense friendships. And they lived and breathed politics with a sense of noblesse oblige towards those not blessed with their wealth and privileges. Caroli's cogent group portrait restores to history neglected figures like Anna Roosevelt Cowles, whom some contemporaries felt would have made a better president than her younger brother Theodore, and puts well-known histories like Eleanor's in a revealing new context. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

With numerous full biographies available, there is something unsatisfying about Caroli's brief, chapter-length life-summaries for Theodore Roosevelt's sharp-tongued daughter, Alice Longworth, and her less-quarrelsome cousin Eleanor Roosevelt, so often the target of Alice's barbs. More valuable are Caroli's profiles of fascinating Roosevelts less familiar to readers and biographers, women such as TR's second daughter, Ethel Derby (who died in 1977 after a lifetime of good works), and his niece Corinne Alsop (Republican political activist and mother of journalist Joseph Alsop), not to mention his sisters Corinne Robinson (writer and prot?g?e of Edith Wharton) and Anna Cowles (one of TR's most savvy political advisers). At the end of the book, one is left wishing Caroli (First Ladies and Inside the White House) had cast a wider net in her search for featured players. Why, for example, does preeminent anthropologist Anna C. Roosevelt (the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" award) rate only five or six lines? And why do Selwa (Lucky) Roosevelt's few lines contain no hint of her distinguished foreign service career, or its culmination with the post of chief of protocol for the U.S. under Ronald Reagan? This often good book would have been much better without these and similar errors of omission. Illustrated.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First edition (October 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465071333
• ISBN-13: 978-0465071333
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Roosevelt, Eleanor

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong men, stronger women..., March 3, 2005

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Roosevelt Women (Paperback)

In The Roosevelt Women by Betty Boyd Caroli, the author gives us a fascinating look at the Roosevelt women from primarily the Oyster Bay branch of this venerable family. Most of us have a general knowledge of presidents Theodore Roosevelt (TR) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). We also have some idea of the contributions of Eleanor Roosevelt to the world stage. The story of Eleanor Roosevelt and her female kin (grandmother, aunts and cousins) is in some respects even more remarkable than that of the Roosevelt men.

The book starts with Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt, TR's mother. This beautiful Southern Belle married the senior Theodore Roosevelt. While often times spoiled, fragile and frivolous, she was also a caring mother and patient teacher to her children. According to Caroli, she withdrew from "family competition" in order that her plain daughters would "feel superior to her, to develop both wit and charm sufficient to outshine her inordinately good looks." Though she never lived to see her four granddaughters, they all credited her for her contributions to the Roosevelt family.

Mittie's daughters, Anna Roosevelt Cowles and Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, provide the most engrossing characters in The Roosevelt Women. While not well schooled, they were both bright, articulate and politically astute women. They surrounded themselves with powerful, witty and intelligent men and their houses were the center of lively and sparkling conversation. In later life, Corinne became a published poet and a public speaker. While these sisters were trailblazers in many ways, they were content to stay in the shadow of their more famous brother, TR, and never flaunted their relationship with him. Yet, they did everything in their power to help TR reach his political goals. It has been said that if Anna, Corinne and Teddy were all alive today, the women would make better presidential material.

Subsequent chapters cover the lives of Mittie's daughter-in-law, Edith (TR's second wife), Eleanor Roosevelt, Corinne Robinson Alsop (Corinne's daughter), Alice Longworth (TR's oldest daughter), and Ethel Derby (TR's youngest daughter). "Princess Alice" is probably the most colorful of the group and was considered the "other Washington Monument." TR once said of his wayward and headstrong daughter "I can run the country, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."

The Roosevelt Women is a very readable book, and often seems more like a novel than a work of nonfiction. But this is by no means the complete story of all the Roosevelt women, as there is very little on the Hyde Park side of the family (Eleanor Roosevelt was an Oyster Bay Roosevelt before she married her 5th cousin, Franklin) Sara Delano Roosevelt (FDR's mom) does not rate her own chapter. Also, there are no women covered in depth after the generation of Mittie's granddaughters. Still, these criticisms aside, this is a book not to be missed by any true Roosevelt fan.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book brings the Roosevelt women alive., December 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Roosevelt Women (Hardcover)

I wasn't expecting to like this book. The Roosevelt women I knew about, like Eleanor, seemed too wealthy and upper class to interest me. However, once I started reading (at a friend's recommendation), I was drawn into each of these Roosevelt women's stories. The history and politics in the book were easy to grasp, and everything that happened in the lives of the women discussed was made vivid and dramatic by the author. I wish I could sit down with her and have a cup of coffee and hear about the parts she left out.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful engrossing read, November 12, 1998

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roosevelt Women (Hardcover)

I enjoyed immensely this collective biography of a group of women linked by a family name made famous by two presidents. Each was a notable, and in some cases extraordinary character in her own right. It is not an easy task to untangle and explicate the intricate skeins of nine overlapping stories, but the author succeeds wonderfully by filling her book with memorable details, photographs and contexts for each of these women. I felt very well guided through the complexities of their relationships with each other and to the men of the family, and the influences they exerted, many of which have not been as clearly profiled in biographies focusing on the Roosevelt men. I was grateful for the large doses of social historical context, which helped me appreciate the scope of some of the lesser-known women's accomplishments. Caroli writes in the most affecting terms, clearly delineating each personality in her own right and in terms of the mark she left on American history. The choice to approach these women as a large group differentiates this book from other Roosevelt biographies and underlines the qualities of immense energy, curiosity, and forcefulness of character which are the common threads of these women's lives.

I found it a fascinating read and could not put the book down.