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lukeibaldwin's review
5.0
Perfectly matching the subsequent eras the subject’s life, the evolution of tone and voice is the strength of this book. The pacing is a bit off at places only that it should be expanded where it contracts, never vice versa. It could’ve been two volumes. All this and so much more lends me to say it’s much more a top rated biography than not.
jmtaylor1981's review
4.0
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American treasure. Of course, like all of us, she had her faults but her love for country & love for fellow human beings is inspiring. This book seemed rushed but is great for anyone who wants to get to be introduced to America's grandmother.
williammcclain's review
5.0
Personally, I found the writing style obtuse, and many people, places and things were left unexplained. But the content is so monumental, that I couldn't see giving it less than 5 stars. Michaelis has done justice to her accomplishments and person.
kerryann's review
5.0
The first time I read about Eleanor Roosevelt I was 9 years old, sitting at the top of my Grandma Doyle's steps with the book Upstairs at the White House My Life With the First Ladies by J.B. West. His personable, admiring memories of Eleanor Roosevelt gave me a foundation to dive in on the life of this extraordinary woman. I have read books about her in every stage of my life, this one is #18.
I thought that I would not get much out of Eleanor: A Life. At this point, reading about Eleanor is like a comfort re-read. Some people watch Friends over and over again, I read about Eleanor and her gallivanting.
1/3 of the way through the book, I flipped to the bibliography because David Michaelis approach to ER brimmed with information that I had not read before. I was like, did some new scholarship come out? How does he have all of these quotes and details I have not heard before ....example...when Marian Anderson gave her legendary concert at the Washington Memorial, it was Eleanor that used her radio contacts to have the concert broadcast, which is why we have the recordings. Just a little detail but a BIG detail.
I think that Mr. Michaelis himself (or his assistants) combed through the personal papers of scores of folks who directly or tangentially touched ER's life and that is why this biography is loaded with extraordinary details about her as a person. He places ER in the context of her time-- he makes connections about her personality and choices. This is a psychological biography in the tradition of Lytton Strachey's biography of Queen Victoria. (aside: L.S. is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit.)
The best compliment I can give to a biography is if it is grounded in excellent research AND accessible-- this book was fresh and human and SO GOOD.
Eleanor's life was punctuated by heartbreak or heroism. She did not have a middle ground. As a child, she was isolated, lonely and ultimately, orphaned. Awkward and damaged by family members that failed to connect with her. By the end of her life, she had so many people that she loved that her Christmas list was 300 people long. She was known to spend the year squirreling away carefully chosen packages the year round. I would love to have 300 people that I cared about that much.
Other books have discussed the unique marriage that FDR and ER managed to cobble together, David Michaelis is the first who showed how the marriage actually worked. Other biographers described two courts existing in uneasy tension, ER and her steadily rotating cast of crushes and FDR, his inner circle and his rotating auxiliary wife of the time. I was taken over and again at how David Michaelis maintained this eye to the reality of their couplehood, for example, during the last week of FDR's life, he was described as "as dead as a man could be and still be alive" and still Eleanor was after him, calling and calling and calling about her pet causes. One of the new to me tidbits was that within 3 days of his death she called him at Warm Springs and kept him on the phone for 45 minutes at a time, his personal physician said FDR's blood pressure went up 50 points after speaking with her. Now THAT is some detail.
Eleanor Roosevelt said she dealt with depression by staying busy, traveling. For 30 years, she never spent more than 10 days in a row in one place. Can you imagine? So what does that look like? Again, David Michaelis engrossed me with her intrepid, extraordinary travels. Did anyone connect with more people than Eleanor Roosevelt as a First Lady?? Could anyone touch what she pulled off on her path to becoming a true citizen of the world?
This book is a short 500 plus pages because she lived so hard and so completely. He spends enormous time on her early life and formation of her character and family influences. Then a good bit of time on her early marriage, motherhood and her relationship with Franklin's mother. That was a good use of time because it made all of her flowering into a citizen of the world goosebump worthy. You can see how she never stopped growing.
Another thing that David Michaelis does very well is he keeps up with the racism of the time and not in a looking backward it was not racist to them it is racist to us now way, which is not amazing in a biography. He did it a good way, the, "this is how she was raised, and this is the prejudices she nurtured, and he shows her shedding them, sloppily, incompletely and always changing and enlarging her idea of what equality looked like. It is a template for how racism is baked in and how travel, mixing with people of every background and a willingness to reflect can allow you to grow beyond prejudice.
At the same time, he shines a light on her time in the UN when she could have elevated the voices of Black Americans seeking a global court and heartbreakingly, again, they were not important enough. It makes me wonder if the voice of Black Americans will ever merit top billing.
My favorite, new understanding of ER is that all of her work centered on helping an individual. She dealt with people as individuals. Her great work, her great achievements and insights came from hard won experience of listening, looking, thinking, asking and effort.
The old story is that after she toured a school/prison (can't remember) FDR listened and asked, "Did you look inside the pots on the stove?" She admitted she had not, she had only looked at menus. That was the last time she made that mistake. She pulled the lids off all the pots, shook all the hands, opened her door to knocks and always cared. She had a big heart.
I loved this book. It was a treat. Thanks for reading my review!!
I thought that I would not get much out of Eleanor: A Life. At this point, reading about Eleanor is like a comfort re-read. Some people watch Friends over and over again, I read about Eleanor and her gallivanting.
1/3 of the way through the book, I flipped to the bibliography because David Michaelis approach to ER brimmed with information that I had not read before. I was like, did some new scholarship come out? How does he have all of these quotes and details I have not heard before ....example...when Marian Anderson gave her legendary concert at the Washington Memorial, it was Eleanor that used her radio contacts to have the concert broadcast, which is why we have the recordings. Just a little detail but a BIG detail.
I think that Mr. Michaelis himself (or his assistants) combed through the personal papers of scores of folks who directly or tangentially touched ER's life and that is why this biography is loaded with extraordinary details about her as a person. He places ER in the context of her time-- he makes connections about her personality and choices. This is a psychological biography in the tradition of Lytton Strachey's biography of Queen Victoria. (aside: L.S. is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit.)
The best compliment I can give to a biography is if it is grounded in excellent research AND accessible-- this book was fresh and human and SO GOOD.
Eleanor's life was punctuated by heartbreak or heroism. She did not have a middle ground. As a child, she was isolated, lonely and ultimately, orphaned. Awkward and damaged by family members that failed to connect with her. By the end of her life, she had so many people that she loved that her Christmas list was 300 people long. She was known to spend the year squirreling away carefully chosen packages the year round. I would love to have 300 people that I cared about that much.
Other books have discussed the unique marriage that FDR and ER managed to cobble together, David Michaelis is the first who showed how the marriage actually worked. Other biographers described two courts existing in uneasy tension, ER and her steadily rotating cast of crushes and FDR, his inner circle and his rotating auxiliary wife of the time. I was taken over and again at how David Michaelis maintained this eye to the reality of their couplehood, for example, during the last week of FDR's life, he was described as "as dead as a man could be and still be alive" and still Eleanor was after him, calling and calling and calling about her pet causes. One of the new to me tidbits was that within 3 days of his death she called him at Warm Springs and kept him on the phone for 45 minutes at a time, his personal physician said FDR's blood pressure went up 50 points after speaking with her. Now THAT is some detail.
Eleanor Roosevelt said she dealt with depression by staying busy, traveling. For 30 years, she never spent more than 10 days in a row in one place. Can you imagine? So what does that look like? Again, David Michaelis engrossed me with her intrepid, extraordinary travels. Did anyone connect with more people than Eleanor Roosevelt as a First Lady?? Could anyone touch what she pulled off on her path to becoming a true citizen of the world?
This book is a short 500 plus pages because she lived so hard and so completely. He spends enormous time on her early life and formation of her character and family influences. Then a good bit of time on her early marriage, motherhood and her relationship with Franklin's mother. That was a good use of time because it made all of her flowering into a citizen of the world goosebump worthy. You can see how she never stopped growing.
Another thing that David Michaelis does very well is he keeps up with the racism of the time and not in a looking backward it was not racist to them it is racist to us now way, which is not amazing in a biography. He did it a good way, the, "this is how she was raised, and this is the prejudices she nurtured, and he shows her shedding them, sloppily, incompletely and always changing and enlarging her idea of what equality looked like. It is a template for how racism is baked in and how travel, mixing with people of every background and a willingness to reflect can allow you to grow beyond prejudice.
At the same time, he shines a light on her time in the UN when she could have elevated the voices of Black Americans seeking a global court and heartbreakingly, again, they were not important enough. It makes me wonder if the voice of Black Americans will ever merit top billing.
My favorite, new understanding of ER is that all of her work centered on helping an individual. She dealt with people as individuals. Her great work, her great achievements and insights came from hard won experience of listening, looking, thinking, asking and effort.
The old story is that after she toured a school/prison (can't remember) FDR listened and asked, "Did you look inside the pots on the stove?" She admitted she had not, she had only looked at menus. That was the last time she made that mistake. She pulled the lids off all the pots, shook all the hands, opened her door to knocks and always cared. She had a big heart.
I loved this book. It was a treat. Thanks for reading my review!!
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