she was eleanor roosevelt roosevelt. her uncle was teddy roosevelt who was president of the united states, of course, at the turn of the century. and some say franklin just followed teddy's career. and she had seen teddy's wife preside in the white house mainly as a hostess, and she just didn't want to do that. she said i just don't want to sit in the white house and pour tea. um, now, she would have perhaps liked to have been a closer adviser to her husband than she was. although she certainly gave him the benefit of her ideas. she never hesitated to offer opinions, but he might or might not accept them. so when franklin was elected, she went to franklin, and she said i'm not going to have very much to do as first lady, could i take care of your mail for you? actually, that was rather commonly done by political wives in those days. harry truman's wife had worked in his office and taken care of his mail, and the vice president, vice president garner's wife also had been in his office and helped take care of the mail. so

was a graduate student living in new york city, and thanks to a grant from the franklin and eleanor roosevelt institution, i was up here to the roosevelt library to find material for my dissertation topic. as any researcher knows, what you do a lot of when you're at an archive is sit around waiting for boxes to be brought to you. it's true that the folks at the roosevelt libraries quite speedy in this. still you spend a lot of time ordering boxes and waiting for them to be brought. i was waiting for my boxes to come, and i started puttering around the research room to distract myself, and i came across a set of finding aids for writing by franklin roosevelt. i never thought of fdr as much of writer, not compared to the doctor roosevelt or woodrow wilson or various world leaders, such as winston churchill or lenin. before i could think more about the question, there came my boxes, and so i put away the thought in the back of my health but fast forward several months. in the meantime, i dropped my dissertation, taken a leave of absence from school and started work at the legal assistance as a l

my next project is on eleanor roosevelt and world world war i. when i started writing on fdr i planned to have a chapter on eleanor to see how other people saw japanese americans. but she woulds so important and so interesting she was going to take over the entire book, and so i decided that i would -- had better let her go for the time being, and so in the meantime, i've been assembling stuff. the story of eleanor roosevelt and japanese americans, very briefly, is a story of dissidence. it's a story of eleanor roosevelt trying to find ways to push her husband against -- to dissuade him from removing japanese americans, then to help japanese americans, she approved emergency funds from her account with the american friend service committee nor emergency programs for the japanese american evacuees. she asked to visit a camp, and in 1942 this was forbidden, but in 1943 she actually visited the gila river camp. i wrote to a number of japanese americans who had been to gila river to ask for their stories of mrs. roosevelt's visit. the first thing the

there was a story about eleanor roosevelt where there was an actual black pilots e she agreed to go upd with him and everybody said don't do it. and realize they were capable of being fighters. is thatin true? what can you tellue us about the western pennsylvaniaenns area? >> the second part first. the gist of the story ision. true but a mythology has grown up around it. mrs. rose about was in tuskegee 1939 or 40. which was a board meeting and on the board of directors doing a lot the charity work building schools for african-american children. she was there and was at tuskegee several times because of her interest in the infantile paralysis research going on there but people don't remember that they had to do the research at tuskegee because they did not allow blackspato have warm springs. she knew about the great work dr. carver was doing and when she got there she did hear about the training program the tuskegee institute had going on for civilian students. the chief instructor pilotscoul less asked if he could take care for a plane ride there was era pitcher of them the along with l

eleanor roosevelt in turn was lobbying for this with a blow war department and in the back of the bed berdache the bedrooms of the white house that this was the right thing to do. but he didn't do it because it was right thing to do. it was because it was the politically expedient thing to do. he needed the 1940 election, black votes. wendell willkie had done more since lincoln to make the republican party the party most favorable towards african-american rights. there was a real danger african-americans who voted for roosevelt might switch back to the republican party as they had before 1932 so roosevelt's political advisers were worried about this. roosevelt had some embarrassments in the 1940 campaign. the most odd and significant was stephen hurley, his press secretary's run in with the new york city police officer. fdr was campaigning at madison square garden. the press secretary considered the first modern press secretary was trying to get through a police line at madison square garden. an african-american police officer would not let him for and he got in a wrestling match that

and this is how eleanor roosevelt would kiss. >> whoa. ly, not. >> jimmy: please welcome to show a talented actor, nick offerman, everybody! ♪ [ cheers and applause ] ♪ i want you to show -- >> jimmy: thank you for coming on the show. and thank you reading letters -- and thank you for being you, my man. >> thank you for having me. >> jimmy: we've had you before. you did a bit on our show. >> you have had me. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: don't -- >> three of the roots have also had me. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: don't tell us which three. let us just guess. speaking of having you -- "parks and rec" has really, i think, hit its stride. >> thank you. >> jimmy: it's phenomenal. it is one of the best shows on tv, i got to tell you. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. >> jimmy: it's so funny. it's well written, but it's very also -- it's very heartfelt, too. that's why i like it best. >> thank you. i do, too. i love that kind of tv. it reminds me of when i was a kid and watching "cheers" or "taxi" or "m.a.s.h." >> jimmy: ooh, i like the sitcoms that mad

. >> maureen beasley recall the lenore's--eleanor roosevelt's years as first lady and her involvement in politics and her transformation of the position of first lady from one that was not acknowledged to prominent political actor. this beasley speaks and takes audience questions for a little more than an hour. >> our speaker today, maureen beasley is professor of merit of journalism at the university of maryland and as i was reading her bio i noticed the connection with the state of missouri. she attended university of missouri's journalism school which if you know anything about

eleanor roosevelt said afterward as she talked with reporters in the white house.the crowds were so tremendous that you felt that they would do anything if only someone with tell them what to do. [applause] >> okay susan, what do you think? [laughter] >> it is magnificent writing and here in here you see political scientist at work, but also a historian's art and some of the lyrical descriptions and jim's incredibly rich vocabulary, the golden trees in the numbing crisis and the invading army of fear. that is not the way someone writes an encyclopedia. that is an artist writing and certain key lines about fdr crossing out the word humble. i don't know if you remember george washington's inaugural address. and his other addresses whenever he accepted a position of authority. he was always hedging his bets and emphasizing his deficiencies and inadequacies and saying to people, you were the ones who elected me in case things go wrong. [laughter] but fdr realized this was no moment for washingtonian humility because if he spoke about his deficiencies, there could be ma

look, i've been reading about fdr and eleanor roosevelt i was prepping for a class i'm going to teachfirst ladies. the fact that is questions of extramarital affairs, they're deeply human complex anxieties. they go way back in our history. the fact is in this new media environment to be a steward of your constituent's interests requires in part making choices in your private life that can be displayed in a way that is respectable by the standards of our kind of contemporary, political and social norms. >> so, i feel like i agree with you and that all totally make sense for me and viscerally i believe in people's right to be icky. >> yes, of course. >> as long as they're not victimizing anyone and not being hypocritical. i think you're right. the way to measure the impact is to talk about the way it detracts from their ability to speak up for things that they want paid attention to. >> absolutely. i believe in how -- i am descended from mormon ancestors. i had mormon ancestors what were imprison ford consensual bigamy. i have always had a lot of anythi anxiety about that, my sense is i

the roosevelt family, we forget that, n., they -- i mean, alice longworth used to make fun of eleanor roosevelt and this, that and the other, but they were closer than we think. and, in fact, not only did franklin roosevelt marry theodore roosevelt's favorite niece, but he also regarded theodore roosevelt, as he said, as the greatest man he ever knew. and i think theodore roosevelt's influence on his distant cousin, franklin, was a reality in his life up until his death even though we tend to ignore it. remember, too, that theodore roosevelt became prominent at strategic moments in fdr's life. franklin roosevelt was a schoolboy when theodore roosevelt became mckinley's assistant secretary of the navy. he was at school when theodore roosevelt charged up san juan hill. he had just become, just entered his sophomore year at harvard when theodore roosevelt became president. so roosevelt's vision of an american sentry, of a globally-assertive united states was something that was bred into franklin roosevelt really in his youth. and i don't think ever left him. and all through his public career you h

>> the chapter turned out to be the eleanor roosevelt/franklin roosevelt white house. he had his girlfriend living next to him, she had her girlfriend, lorena hickok, living next to her in the white house. the american public didn't, obviously, know anything about this. the fascinating thing about the story is that the girlfriends turned out to be essential to helping these two figures become the great heros of american history who led us through the great depression and the second world war. it's an essential piece of their story, these extramarital relationships. and it's an important piece which has been long ignored by historians. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> this june on "in depth," the balance between security and liberty, the difficulties of a climate change treaty, and the limits of international law. your questions for author and university of chicago law professor eric posner. his books include law and social norms and the perils of global legalism, and he'll take your calls, e-mails and treats. live sunday, june 5th, on c

>> my favorite chapter turned out to be the eleanor roosevelt and franklin roosevelt chapter. it was complicated. he had his girlfriend living in a bedroom next to him. she had her girlfriend nexto

roosevelt. there is repeated testimony by those who knew him best including eleanor of the importance of religion and particularly his christian faith on his ideas. this is confirmed by his own words including those in speeches and public documents included in the book which constitute an important part of it. roosevelt acknowledged the guidance of his father and the instruction of his head master for his moral and religious convictions. he repeatedly invoked the religious imperative to economic justice. tea often cited religious forces for his thinking and he was very much the child of the social gospel, so influential in america during his formative years. we all know franklin roosevelt as among other things a shrewd political operator and political thinker. one of his speeches he quotes a papal honoring the 40th anniversary of leo xiii. both of these deal with economic and social justice and rail against the excessive concentration of power. knowing his audience, roosevelt quoted the to defend his program knowing his audience very well, he then proceeded to quote a rabbi and protestant ministe