Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers

Since Mr. Joseph P. Lash was a good friend of, and co-worker with, Eleanor, then this biography should and does quite naturally deals with her, and, "Team Eleanor". However, it does start out with the focus on both Eleanor and Franklin, where "Team Franklin" is first assembled as he commences his New York State Senatorship, just prior to World War One, then puts him more on the side, commencing with Franklin's acceptance of the Assistant Secretaryship of the Navy, the Lucy Mercer Affair, then seems to make a more or less complete break, after Franklin suffers the attack of his Paralytic Illness.And as this book explains, it gives you a picture of how Eleanor evolved and thrived, firmly outside of her husband's shadow. Thereafter, FDR pretty much remains a cypher. Nevertheless, as much as I was clamoring for more about him, one could still yet get some good clues about what makes Franklin tick, however remotely. Mr. Lash as a "lad", worked intimately with, and accomplished quite a lot alongside Eleanor, in the Two or Three years run-up to World War Two, mainly dealing with the issues affecting American Youth, but since this book was written under old-fashioned protocols ("Manual of Style"), he leaves himself mostly out of it, except for their reunion for Eleanor's grand South Pacific Tour of Theatre Operations of 1944, when he was serving as an Army Sergeant.Perhaps some of you out there, may suggest some biographies of Franklin (with the MAIN focus upon him), that are more "first-person" oriented, where the biographer--or--auto-biographer manages to insert you firmly within the subject's skin? The only alternative--not a book--is viewing the Ken Burns series about the Roosevelt Dynasties. And that went into quite some detail, about what an inspirational and beloved leader, that "Doc Rosie" was, overseeing the early years of his Warm Springs sanitarium.For contrast, in dealing with Abraham Lincoln, I found Sandberg's Lincoln biography of him, to successfully accomplish that for me, and Sandberg had to have done that, using Abe's own short Autobiography as a blueprint, written during the period of his run-up for his Presidency. The mark of a fine biography, IS the use of this "First-Person-Insertion" as I've described. For about the first 100 or so pages dealing with these Two, after the "Polio" (Many of today's Physicians and their specialists now argue for OTHER causes of Franklin's Paralytic Illness.) attack, I WAS disappointed, until I realized that this book's mission was to always focus on Eleanor, and then the book got easy-going after that, and what a WONDERFUL & WARM woman she turned out to be; you will still yet sufficient detail about FDR, to fill in those blanks, too. I do not know what this world would have done without these Two's sojourn on this planet. Had America lost World War Two, one-half of this nation would have had the swastika flag flying over it, while the other half would have been flying the rising sun. What would we have done without Franklin's leadership?? And this, coming from me, where my philosophical instincts are more "traditional", more conservative. I can see well beyond the usual knee-jerk Neanderthal accusations of these Two, as having been full-on Communists, doing the Kremlin's bidding. Those canards simply are not true.

Book by Joe Lash who was a intimate of Eleanor during her lifetime. It is an interesting account of her life from a child to her later years. It details all her accomplishments and shows how different life was for her at that time in history versus our more current first ladies. Although she had media to deal with they were respectful of her privacy and didn't follow her around all that much. She was a very influential women in shaping the country and influencing Franklin and policy. If only we had more women like her. She was one of a kind. Today's first lady should read this book.The only reason I gave it four stars is due to it's length. Also it tends to not follow chronologically in her life, going back and forth in time making it a bit harder to follow.

An excellent study of two very human people who helped revive a nation. Although they were vilified by many, they were admired by many more. I grew up in a town where the local newspaper was titled "The *** Republican" and was eight years old and playing in our backyard when the lady next door called over to my mother that President Roosevelt had died. I was terribly upset and hid behind the rosebushes and cried ......because I thought that meant that we would lose the war! Such was the importance of Roosevelt to us ordinary people, Republicans as well as Democrats, and this book will show you why. It is so well written that it not only is it informative, it's also entertaining.

Very poor cover condition, wanted this for my library as a keeper.

The book is very impressive. I keep it on my coffee table, so I can read a few pages every day! Wonderful!

I was inspired to get this book because of the PBS series that recently aired. And for the most part, it was a satisfying read. There seemed to be a good balance between covering their childhoods, young adulthood, and marriage. My complaints: First off, the book ends with Franklin's death and doesn't cover Eleanor's life afterward. I thought for such a long book, this ending was rather abrupt. I found another listing that indicates the time period covered; however, in the listing I originally viewed, this wasn't made clear. Another observation is that it seemed to focus more on Eleanor's activities, separate from FDR, which I didn't necessarily mind. But this further illustrates why I didn't like how the book finished. Towards the latter half of the book, it focuses and details Eleanor's impressive array of social/political activities - she really sets a high bar in terms of public service. It got to a point at times, admittedly, where I would just skip some of those pages. I did develop a greater respect and admiration for Eleanor, and I would like to get another book that would continue where this book leaves off.

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. So, went to Amazon to replace it. It's a heavy tome so pretty much has to be read in bed so you can rest it on your chest. But, it is a very good book about two of the most fascinating people who ever lived.

Eleanor and Franklin is very well written. I couldn't put it down. I was a little disappointed that the book ended when Franklin died. What happened to Eleanor after that? She was a fabulous woman, well read and very smart, with a lot of energy to help her husband. I recommend it highly.

Rezension in weitestgehender Anlehnung an den Klappentext des Buches:Im Mittelpunkt dieser Biographie steht Eleanor Roosevelt und ihre vielschichtige Beziehung zu Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32. Präsident der USA. Basierend auf ihren persönlichen Papieren und von ihrer Geburt im Jahr 1884 bis zum Tod ihres Mannes im Jahr 1945 reichend, enthüllt dieses Werk neue Dimensionen einer Ehe, die von bedeutsamer Wirkung auf den Verlauf der amerikanischen Geschichte war.Geschrieben mit Scharfblick und Feingefühl von einem Autor, der über zwanzig Jahre lang zu Eleanor Roosevelts engen Freunden zählte, spürt dieses Werk den persönlichen, familiären und gesellschaftlichen Einflüssen nach, die Eleanor geformt und auf die Rolle der First Lady sowie der wichtigsten Beraterin des Präsidenten vorbereitet haben. In vieler Hinsicht war Eleanor das Gewissen ihres Ehemannes. Ihr Idealismus gab die Bedingungen vor, auf deren Grundlage sich die komplexe Partnerschaft mit ihrem Mann im Laufe seines politischen Aufstiegs entwickelte.Lash geht ausführlich darauf ein, wie Eleanor allmählich ihre persönliche Unsicherheit und viele Widrigkeiten überwand, wie sie die Rolle als Frau eines Politikers und den damit verbundenen Verlust an Privatleben bewältigte, wie sie mit der Erkrankung ihres Mannes an Kinderlähmung und seiner Kandidatur für das Präsidentenamt umging und wie sie während der Jahre im Weißen Haus aus eigener Kraft das Ansehen einer beherzten, tatkräftigen, starken Persönlichkeit erwarb.Vor allem aber hat Lash die Biographie einer Partnerbeziehung geschrieben. Der Leser erhält einen seltenen Einblick in die Entscheidungsfindung hinter den Kulissen während der verschiedenen Stationen von Franklins politischer Karriere und der Krisen von wirtschaftlicher Depression und 2. Weltkrieg. Indem er Eleanors Anteil am Werk ihres Mannes dokumentiert, bietet Lash dem Leser ein neues Verständnis vieler kritischer Entscheidungen des vergangenen Jahrhunderts.Nicht nur als Studie zweier enorm interessanter Menschen, sondern auch als Analyse der vielfältigen Wechselwirkungen zwischen Persönlichkeit und Geschichte ist "Eleanor and Franklin" ein lesenswertes Buch.Richtigzustellen wäre noch, dass es sich hier um ein sehr umfangreiches Werk von 765 Seiten handelt, nicht wie o.b. von 265 Seiten.

Item arrived without dust jacket as led to expect by image as shown upon purchase. Though better to have book which once had than not at all, getting it coverless very disappointing