Book Description

Volume I of the Camp David Diaries’ an eleven-volume series, is a tantalizing approach to historical fiction combining women, politics, intimacies and the keeping of secret diaries at Camp David. Volume I – Eleanor Roosevelt (1942-1945), offers a peek into Eleanor Roosevelt’s life, including World War II, infidelity, betrayal, unrequited love and life in the White House.Volume I contains comments by each succeeding First Lady (Bess, Mamie, Jackie, Lady Bird, Pat, Betty, Rosalynn, Nancy, Barbara and Hillary), who also have diaries of their own (Volumes II – XI).Over the years the women have created a First Ladies’ primer in which they share lessons learned, and give tips on how to handle their job, the press, the public, the White House staff, their children and, most of all, their husbands.The voyeuristic nature of diaries is appealing, but when they are about the last eleven First Ladies, they are even more intriguing.It is history with an attitude. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Modern Women, Modern Lives
I really connected to both Camp David Diaries, not only did it appeal to the voyerism so popular on television today but it revealed a more intimate life of the not so private lives of these important women. These diaries, though fictional, have a reality to them that you can't sense in autobigraphical works. It also allows younger women like myself exposure to more positive role models. You come to understand the good and the bad behind such a powerfull position in our government and that it is not all it's cracked up to be. If you have any interest in women who have made strides in our country and how they faced that adversity this is the series of works to commit to reading.You'll love the back and forth commentary(gossip) of all the First Ladies as they add their two cents about certain people and certain affairs. ... Read more

Book Description

Introduces the life and accomplishments of first lady and humanitarian, Eleanor Roosevelt. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Why Eleanor Roosevelt set the standard for all First Ladies
There are plenty of history books that document the ways Franklin D. Roosevelt changed both the Presidency and the American government, so it is not really surprising that his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was just as successful in transforming the role of the First Lady. In this volume for the Our People series, Pam Rosenberg shows young readers why Eleanor Roosevelt was considered both a humanitarian and a world citizen, who managed to make significant accomplishments even after her husband died and she left the White House.

Of course, young readers are going to be interested in how this child of privilege married her distant cousin. But they will also learn about how Roosevelt was educated at Allenswood, a private school for young women, founded by the feminist Marie Souvestre (there is a short side bar on this). The strength of this juvenile biography is that while Rosenberg keeps tabs on FDR's rise in politics, the focus is on what Eleanor was up to, and the main thing I took away from this book was that she was accomplishing a lot before she became First Lady. I knew that she was FDR's eyes and legs during the White House, and I was familiar with the fine work she did with the United Nations in her later years. But Rosenberg makes the case for an entire lifetime of public service and the last paragraph in the books simply states, "It would be impossible to list all of the things that Eleanor Roosevelt did during her lifetime."

The book is filled with photographs from Eleanor Roosevelt's family and public life, including one from her funeral where we see President John F. Kennedy, former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and future president Lyndon M. Johnson in attendance. The margins are crammed with Interesting Facts, such as Eleanor Roosevelt having one ancestor sign the Declaration of Independence and another administer the oath of office to President George Washington, and J. Edgar Hoover keeping a file on her because he did not like her opinions (she had one of the biggest files in F.B.I. history). These are always one of the best parts of these volumes, but Rosenberg really comes up with a lot of good ones.

Eleanor Roosevelt is one of two first ladies who appears in the first set of Our People volumes, the other being Dolley Madison, who was certainly as popular and as respected in her own day as Roosevelt (there are photographs of Dolley Madison which show that even in old age she had a really great smile). These Our People volumes are a nice complementary series to go alogn with the Spirit of America's Our Presidents series. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A superb overview of the 50's through the eyes of ER
In his overview of Mrs. Roosevelt's "My Day" newspaper columns, Elmblidge succeeds by converting each year of columns into its own chronologized, self-contained chapter -- and within the framework of thatchronology -- allowing the excerpts chosen to represent the most tellingevents of the "day," translation: fifties decade.

Elmblidgeenables us to glide through this volume with his rich chapter introductionsand an exposition preceding each excerpt.The result is not only athorough understanding of the former First Lady's opinions on a wide arrayof social issues, but an absolute appreciation of an era in which she wasso active and outspoken.

This book should be back in print!It isexceptionally well structured and straightforward; the personal stamp ofthe seasoned Mrs. Roosevelt is everywhere.Elmblidge's Volume III is anespecially smart choice for those who did not experience the America (andworld beyond) of the 1950's firsthand, but would wish to. ... Read more

Book Description

Somerville, the only living person who as an adult worked closely with Mrs. Roosevelt, was an aide and friend to the First Lady. Her chronicle of a decade with the Roosevelts focuses on the woman whose compassion and generosity reshaped the world. ... Read more

Book Description

"She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness and herglow has warmed the world."These words were spoken by U.N. AmbassadorAdlai E. Stevenson after the death of Eleanor Roosevelt on November 7,1962.Eleanor's life represents an extraordinary model of a woman'sservice to mankind. This book is both a brief biography of EleanorRoosevelt and a testimony to the positive and influential effect shehad on others. Part I narrates the life of Eleanor, her youth, family,young adulthood and her marriage to Franklin, the White House period,and the years alone. In Part II, Hershan draws on the testimony ofnumerous people from all walks of life whose lives were enriched andoften changed by contact with Eleanor Roosevelt. Her vital role in thedrafting of "The Declaration of Human Rights," which she herself calledher "crowning achievement," is also portrayed. Anecdotes, stories, andmemories of members of her staff, school children, college students,survivors of the Holocaust, the famous, and the not famous, provide aloving testimonial to the memory of one of the greatest women of thetwentieth century. ... Read more