Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism

This vital study reconstructs Eleanor Roosevelt's role as a major power broker from 1945 until her death in 1962. Chagrined at her acquiescence to FDR's policy of interning Japanese Americans during WWII, the First Lady left the White House more committed to racial justice. Her vigorous campaigning against discriminatory voting, housing and employment practices and her outspoken opposition to McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee made her the target of segregationists, xenophobes and anticommunists. In a fierce rivalry with President Truman, she advocated an economic bill of rights guaranteeing full employment at a fair wage. Increasingly dissatisfied with centrist John F. Kennedy from the mid-1950s, she aggressively criticized his timidity on civil rights and his ignoring of migrant farm workers' plight. Her principled stand for low-cost and public housing, affirmative action, regulation of corporations, U.S. support for the United Nations-key planks in the liberal agenda under siege today-makes this a timely reassessment. Black is assistant professor of American studies and history at Pennsylvania State University. Photos. Author tour. (Feb.)