Praise for Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2: 1933–1938

”In Volume 2 of her biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Blanche Wiesen Cook continues her diligent pentimento, getting at the tender, sprightly creature behind the starchy, strident image, chronicling how the timid housewife and mother of five shed her chrysalis and turned into the New Deal’s relentless ‘Eleanor Everywhere.’”

—The New York Times Book Review [Front Page]

“In this admiring biography Cook shows how Mrs. R. embarked on an unprecedented role for a First Lady, and how, although legally powerless, she became a political authority and a widely beloved figure.”

—The New Yorker

“Excitement fuels these pages, especially since Cook never simplifies the trials and triumphs that shaped [Eleanor Roosevelt’s] progressive vision.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Cook pulls no punches when it comes to examining her heroine’s political or personal shortcomings, but she also delights in showing us the excellence of her character and the scope of her achievements.”

—Merle Rubin, The Christian Science Monitor

“The most vicious of Eleanor Roosevelt’s many critics and her scores of admirers could have agreed on one thing: She changed America.”

—The Seattle Times

“Cook details the remarkable energy and dedication Eleanor Roosevelt brought to fighting for her ideals… A masterful assemblage of facts and insights that illuminate a great woman’s life.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A hardworking, passionate woman, Eleanor Roosevelt is fascinating—but it’s Cook’s elegant, richly detailed treatment of her that will keep you reading.”

—OUT magazine

“Cook’s portrait of a woman in the thick of things during the hardest of hard times likely will stand as definitive.”

—The Washington Post