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73 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gives a fully rounded portrait of this complex woman and makes a good case for her relevance in today's world, March 12, 2009
This review is from: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (Hardcover)
In this age when Presidential cabinet members come and go almost with the frequency of auto salesmen, several generations of politics watchers have grown up pretty much ignorant of the name Frances Perkins. Her time in the national spotlight was brief --- the 12 years of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. As FDR's Secretary of Labor she was especially prominent during the years 1933-1940, when domestic concerns were on the front burner and she played a leading role in pushing for such causes as the Social Security Act, wage and hour laws, immigration reform, workplace safety, the right of workers to organize, pensions, welfare and old-age insurance. When World War II erupted, she was less often in the news but still active in matters like pushing for admission of Jewish refugees into the U.S. As the first woman ever to serve in a President's cabinet, she was subject to blatant sexist attitudes and scurrilous rumors not only from know-nothing outsiders but also from her own colleagues in government. Author Kirstin Downey was perhaps too young to have known anything about Perkins at first-hand, but she has done a thorough job of bringing this determined yet personally complex woman to life for a new audience. She shows how Perkins's complex character was molded by early revolt against her family background and by a conscious strategy of working with "imperfect people" to attain ends she thought important. Downey is sympathetic toward her subject's sly tactic of first studying closely the people she wanted to use, then playing up to them in ways that helped her get things done. She had a gift for ingratiating herself with people who could help her. She was an early associate of Jane Addams and Al Smith. Sinclair Lewis wanted to marry her, and when Franklin Roosevelt came into her orbit, she played him as a great pianist plays a Steinway, feeding him ideas and plans and usually letting him take credit for carrying them out. Downey calls her FDR's "moral conscience," which seems in hindsight only a very slight exaggeration. Downey's portrait of FDR meshes closely with those drawn by other writers: a cagey operator who gave you the impression of agreeing to your ideas, then went his own often different way. Frances was not Perkins's real name. She was born Fanny Coralie Perkins in Boston in 1880, but during her college years she changed her first name as a calculated stratagem for getting on in the world. She also shaved two years off her age, a move that came back to haunt her later when critics came howling after her, hatchets in hand. Her zeal for improving the lot of working people was awakened in 1911 when she was an eyewitness to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York, in which 146 people died mainly because the company had locked the exit doors they might have used. When governor-elect Roosevelt of New York offered her a post on the State Industrial Commission, it set her course for life and began her long association with the future President. Downey does not downplay Perkins's shortcomings --- her intense dislike of the press, burning ambition and personal secretiveness. The book also lays bare the scars Perkins earned from her difficult personal life with a husband immobilized for many years by severe mental illness, and a wrenchingly dysfunctional relationship with her only child, Susanna, herself a victim of mental illness. Downey also gives in occasionally to the urge to smother her story in too much detail --- and perhaps in a bow to modern sensibilities, she suggests subliminally that there may have been lesbian tendencies at work in Perkins's close relationships with several women. Downey may not be a totally unbiased biographer, but her book does give a fully rounded portrait of this complex woman and makes a good case for her relevance in today's world, 44 years after Perkins's death. Women have come a long way over those 44 years in politics and in life in general; THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL gives a vivid idea of what they had to go through to get to where they now are. --- Reviewed by Robert Finn
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59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm glad someone wrote this book, March 3, 2009
This review is from: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (Hardcover)
This book should have been written years ago. Really. Being Sec. of Labor for 13 years is a big deal and should be considered one. Unfortunately, Perkins is the butt of too many jokes in DC "in labor for 12 years and gave birth to nothing!" and that god-awful ugly building over 395. It's great to think that we once had someone better versed in social work than a lawyer as Sec. of Labor. Washington had a heart back then. The thing that bothered me about this book is that the author seems to have completely bought into the rivalry - albeit, one-sided - between Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt. I don't think Eleanor was aware of it. And I don't think it was a rivalry until later in life. There was then and is now, room for two prominent women, not just one. I don't think a comparison between a bureaucrat and a First Lady is an apt one. It's as if Eleanor Roosevelt is a dragon this author must slay to reveal Perkins' contribution. They had a lot of things in common. It was interesting to read of the ways that sexism affected her career. In unexpected ways, actually. I was saddened to read of Perkins' deliberate efforts to downplay her appearance. Her exclusion from cabinet social events - and her awkward inclusion in cabinet wives social events. I found the 1920s very interesting reading. The '20s were tough for both Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt. As Louis Howe once said, being in the White House was easy compared to the '20s for Eleanor. The same could be said of Perkins as Sec. of Labor. The discussion of the establishment of Social Security is a good read for those interested in the politics of today and the arguments over 'fixing' SS and broadening access to healthcare. The best part of this book is about the New York years while FDR was governor and a lot of the programs that would be associated with the New Deal were tested. It was also at this time that Perkins and Eleanor were in regular contact. Earl Miller - [Eleanor's handsome boytoy] noted to Joe Lash that Eleanor and Perkins "had a lot of huddles." Roosevelt's influence on FDR the governor was huge, hence Sam Rosenman's call to the Brains Trust "to get the pants off of Eleanor and onto Franklin." It had to have been tough for Perkins' star to fall as far as it did after the FDR admin and to see Roosevelt's continue to climb. Even today, the US has only so much room for women as leaders of any kind. But the author should not have followed Perkins' lead in this way. Perkins did enough in her own right under very difficult circumstances. The author also seems to buy into Perkins' disdain for Eleanor's path to political participation that was typical of women: no college, volunteer work, connections through husbands, etc. while praising Perkins' path which was more male in pattern - college, job, breadwinner, etc. Anyone who has read Susan Ware's work wouldn't find this dichotomy [I hate that word] fair to either Roosevelt or Perkins. Each had different opportunities and burdens. There's really no comparison and the comparison is fair to neither, but, because they're both women, they are often compared. Perkins was a bureaucrat and Roosevelt became a politician. A comparison of Perkins to Ickes is more relevant. Ickes' responsibilities got wider every year and he saw FDR socially-both points provide a relevant contrast to Perkins' relationship with FDR. Eleanor had to walk a political tightrope that Perkins did not. Eleanor also got spread out a lot thinner in having to accommodate FDR's needs and schedule and those of their unruly spawn and the improvisational nature of work/responsibilities that fell to her - such as dealing with scientists working on the atomic bomb. I was glad to read somewhere - not here I don't think - that Perkins credited Roosevelt with the fact that the press never asked her about her husband. Evidently, in looking back, she decided that Roosevelt must have given them a 'heads up' about the situation. The author also misses the point that BOTH Perkins and Roosevelt in many ways got somewhat marginalized by the war. FDR was straight with neither - and no one else for that matter - telling Perkins he wanted her to stay but taking authority from her on a regular basis, making fun of her in notes at cabinet meetings, etc. FDR also made no effort whatsoever to protect her during the Harry Bridges controversy. He should have done so. Morgenthau seems to have had a clearer take on FDR's manipulative nature. It is, however, really stretching it to say Perkins authored the New Deal and the author does Perkins no favors by making this claim. The New Deal was very improvisational and, overall, very male. Male cabinet members went on train trips and fishing trips with FDR, not Perkins. Hopkins, Ickes, Tugwell, Will Alexander, Aubrey Williams, etc. could make this claim as easily, if not better. No, one, person had that much influence on FDR. Eleanor knew that and admitted it, so it's a stretch to say that of anyone else. Nevertheless, this book makes an important contribution and could not have come at a better time. Once again, we have a progressive woman at the Dept. of Labor. Here's hoping she's got a little of Frances Perkins in her.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating, wonderful book about an important woman..., June 30, 2009
This review is from: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (Hardcover)
As an American History teacher high school teacher, all my texts include a sidebar, or mention of sorts, about Frances Perkins. This book exceeded all my expectations, and I found myself breathless (?) as I raced to read more! In fact, I almost had a sick feeling of what would have happened if I hadn't read this book, a kind of "near miss," for it is that good. For a history teacher of 20+ years, I count it in my top 5 books or educating me about a person's impact on history. Even after reading it, I went back and learned about how Downey sleuthed to find all the details about Perkins--a feat that allows us to understand an appreciate her subject's life. The pivotal role of Perkins' accomplishments begins with her ties to the suffrage movement and crusade for better labor laws--as she herself said--"I'd rather have laws than a union." It highlights her close relationship with Florence Kelley, but also the New York of Tamany Hall, and the ins and outs of Albany politics. She even witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist fire herself...then, later, she continues to press for changes in labor laws (a man's world) for women, and her particular crusade against child labor. Downey discusses Perkins' deep religiousness--how she prayed and pondered over the draftmanship of the Social Security proposal while in isolation at a priory. Do not blame Perkins for the state of Social Security today--for, as this book makes clear, it was an immediate lifesaver for millions of elderly Americans. She wanted to oversee it after she retired from the cabinet, but was not able to obtain the post. The background information of the causes of the Great Depression read very similar to what is occurring today, and Perkin's disappointment over the failure to produce some sort of national health care foreshadows our own current dialogue. Equally amazing is Francis Perkins teaching at Cornell into her eighties! And living in a sort of "frat house," as the only woman among young male students! I am glad that the book makes clear how Frances Perkins has been almost forgotten...and Downey has done a wonderful work here in assessing her importance. I, for one, am going to use a great deal of this information in my classroom next year and the years to come.
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Housing prices had been pumped up by crazy new kinds of loans, and foreclosures of homes and farms were surging as borrowers faltered under the payments. Companies had enjoyed record profits and ploughed the money into machinery designed to boost productivity, cutting their workforces. The unemployment rate skyrocketed. Companies slashed the wages of the remaining workers, and asked them to work longer and longer hours. And then Wall Street imploded as the stock market crashed.
