The Roosevelt Women: A Portrait in Five Generations

By Betty Boyd Caroli

Book Overview

The Roosevelt name conjures up images of powerful Presidents and dashing men of high society. But few people know much about the extraordinary network of women that held the Roosevelt clan together through war, scandal, and disease. In The Roosevelt Women, Betty Boyd Caroli weaves together stories culled from a rich store of letters, memoirs, and interviews to chronicle nine extraordinary Roosevelt women across a century and a half of turbulent history. She examines the Roosevelt women as mothers, daughters, wives, and, beyond that, as world travelers, authors, campaigners, and socialites -- in short, as themselves. She reveals how they demonstrated the energy and intellectual curiosity that defined their famous family, as well as the roles they played in the intrigues, scandals, and accomplishments that were hallmarks of the Roosevelt clan. From the much maligned Sara Delano (who sired Franklin and by turns terrified and supported Eleanor) to Theodore's irrepressible daughter, Alice ("I can either rule the country or control Alice," Teddy once said) to the beloved Bamie, who was the only mother Alice ever knew, and the model of everything she never was in life, to the exceptionally beautiful but ultimately overwhelmed Mittie, Theodore's mother, The Roosevelt Women is an intricate portrait of bold and talented women, a grand tale of both unbearable tragedies and triumphant achievements.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465071341
• ISBN13: 9780465071340
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating

This book really held my attention. While I must admit that I still get a little confused with the Roosevelt family tree, this book gave me just enough information about the Roosevelt women. It's refreshing to read about the women behind the men!

A thoroughly engrossing read.

Betty Boyd Caroli gives equal and entertaining time to several generations of Roosevelt women who were just as intelligent and strong-minded as their male counterparts (if not more so), even if they didn't have the same career opportunities. This extremely well-written and thoughtful book fills a long-neglected gap in the copious field of Rooseveltiana. Highly recommended to casual readers and historians alike. More compelling as fact than most fiction you'll ever read.

THE ROOSEVELT WOMEN reads like a good novel.

I've just finished a wonderful book which I'd like to recommend to anyone interested in a good read. Betty Boyd Caroli's, THE ROOSEVELT WOMEN, reads like a good novel. It's filled with interesting stories, enticing gossip, and legendary women, - all combined with good history. Although I was familiar with Eleanor Roosevelt's story, I must admit that I knew very little about most of the Roosevelt women Ms. Caroli introduced me to. These aunts and cousins were role models for Eleanor - women who traveled the world, wrote books, served in state legislatures, even addressed the Republican National Convention - all while raising families and running large households. If you want some insight into the lives of the women in this very special American family, this is the book for you.

This book brings the Roosevelt women alive.

I wasn't expecting to like this book. The Roosevelt women I knew about, like Eleanor, seemed too wealthy and upper class to interest me. However, once I started reading (at a friend's recommendation), I was drawn into each of these Roosevelt women's stories. The history and politics in the book were easy to grasp, and everything that happened in the lives of the women discussed was made vivid and dramatic by the author. I wish I could sit down with her and have a cup of coffee and hear about the parts she left out.

a wonderful engrossing read

I enjoyed immensely this collective biography of a group of women linked by a family name made famous by two presidents. Each was a notable, and in some cases extraordinary character in her own right. It is not an easy task to untangle and explicate the intricate skeins of nine overlapping stories, but the author succeeds wonderfully by filling her book with memorable details, photographs and contexts for each of these women. I felt very well guided through the complexities of their relationships with each other and to the men of the family, and the influences they exerted, many of which have not been as clearly profiled in biographies focusing on the Roosevelt men. I was grateful for the large doses of social historical context, which helped me appreciate the scope of some of the lesser-known women's accomplishments. Caroli writes in the most affecting terms, clearly delineating each personality in her own right and in terms of the mark she left on American history. The choice to approach these women as a large group differentiates this book from other Roosevelt biographies and underlines the qualities of immense energy, curiosity, and forcefulness of character which are the common threads of these women's lives.I found it a fascinating read and could not put the book down.