Eleanor Roosevelt : First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady offers, under one cover, sufficient documents, with informative introductions, grouped logically and chronologically, for students to do research and writing on Eleanor Roosevelt.

The text is comprehensive enough to cover fully her role as First Lady in Depression-era America and in World War II as well as her work for civil rights and the American women's movement. Yet it is brief enough to serve as a supplementary reader in courses such as the American history survey, American social and intellectual history, and the history of American women. As she led the way in social, gender, and economic reform, first in the United States and later in the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the way Americans thought about such issues as racial justice, concern for the weak and oppressed, and world peace.

By letting this important figure speak for herself through her writings, she appears as a person and not as an abstract character in a history book. She is placed in historical perspective through commentary on her life and work by friends who knew her and watched her at work and by scholars who have studied her in depth.

Pedagogical tools include questions that students may use to write responsive essays, a list of topics for extended essays or term papers, and an annotated bibliography.