American Experience

Eleanor Roosevelt

Profiling Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the wife of one president, the niece of another and, says historian Geoffrey Ward, "one of the best politicians of the 20th century" in her own right. That's a remarkable achievement considering that she was also an implacable social reformer all her life. This biography recalls Roosevelt on the public stage, and delves gently but forthrightly into her complex private life.