Courage in a Dangerous World: The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt

Dozens of books have been written about Eleanor Roosevelt, but her own writings are largely confined to the Roosevelt archives in Hyde Park. Courage in a Dangerous World allows her own voice again to be heard. Noted Eleanor Roosevelt scholar Allida M. Black has gathered more than two hundred columns, articles, essays, and speeches culled from archives whose pages number in the millions, tracing her development from timorous columnist to one of liberalism's most outspoken leaders. From "My Day" newspaper columns about Marian Anderson and excerpts from Moral Basis of Democracy and This Troubled World to speeches and articles on the Holocaust and McCarthyism, this anthology provides readers with the tools to reconstruct the politics of a woman who redefined American liberalism and democratic reform. Arranged chronologically and by topic, the volume covers the New Deal years, the White House years, World War II at home and abroad, the United Nations and human rights, the Cold War, the civil rights movement, the resurgence of feminism, and much more. In addition, the collection features excerpts from Eleanor Roosevelt's correspondence with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and ordinary Americans. The volume features a collection of 30 rare photographs. A comprehensive bibliography of Eleanor Roosevelt's articles serves as a valuable resource, providing a link to the issues she held dear, many of which are still hotly debated today.

Table of Contents:
Preface, by by Blanche Weisen Cook Introduction Part I. The New Deal Years: 1933-1940 1. The State's Responsibility for Fair Working Conditions 2. I Want You to Write to Me 3. Old Age Pensions 4. Subsistence Farmsteads 5. The New Governmental Interest in the Arts: A Speech before the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Artists 6. In Defense of Curiosity 7. The Negro and Social Change 8. Are We Overlooking the Pursuit of Happiness? 9. Married Persons Clause of the Economy Act 10. The Southern Conference on Human Welfare 11. ER to Lorena HickokHenry Grady Hotel Atlanta 12. Marian Anderson and the Daughters of the American Revolution 13. The Federal Theater Project 14. Women Politics, and Policy 15. The Works Progress Administration 16. The Moral Basis of Democracy 17. Women in Politics 18. Insuring Democracy 19. Helping Them to Help Themselves Part II. The Threat of War: 1935-1945 1. "Because the War Idea Is Obsolete" 2. "This Troubled World" 3. Cash and Carry 4. The Invasion of Poland 5. Wartime Sacrifice 6. Should There Be A Referendum on War? 7. The Bombing of Britain 8. Pearl Harbor 9. The Nazi Camps 10. The Holocaust 11. D-Day 12. D-Day, by Continued 13. Conscientious Objectors 14. Total War 15. Equal Justice for All 16. The Atomic Bomb Part III. The Home Front: 1939-1945 1. "Keepers of Democracy" 2. "Intolerance" 3. "Why I Still Believe in the Youth Congress" 4. "Civil Liberties--The Individual and the Community" 5. "Social Gains and Defense" 6. "Race Religion and Prejudice" 7. "Must We Hate to Fight?" 8. "Freedom: Promise or Fact" 9. "Abolish Jim Crow!" 10. "A Challenge to American Sportsmanship" 11. "Henry A. Wallace's "Democracy Reborn" 12. FDR's Death Part IV. The United Nations and Human Rights: 1945-1953 1. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" 2. "The Promise of Human Rights" 3. "Statement on Draft Covenant on Human Rights" 4. "Reply to Attacks on U.S. Attitude Toward Human Rights Covenant" 5. "UN: Good U.S. Investment" 6. "The Universal Validity of Man's Right to Self-Determination" 7. "U.N. Deliberations on Draft Convention on the Political Rights of Women" 8. "Eisenhower Administration Rejects Treaty" 9. ER's Response Part V. The Cold War Abroad: 1945-1963 1. Revisiting Yalta 2. "The Russians Are Tough" 3. The Korean War 4. Truman's Dismissal of MacArthur 5. China and the Korean War 6. "First Need: Resettlement" 7. "The Changing India" 8. "Soviet Attacks on Social Conditions in U.S." 9. "Why Are We Cooperating with Tito?" 10. Tensions in the Middle East 11. "What Are We For?" 12. The Bay of Pigs and the Congo 13. "What Has Happened to the American Dream?" Part VI. The Cold War at Home: 1945-1963 1. Full Employment 2. Price Controls and Postwar Production 3. "Why I Do Not Choose to Run" 4. Loyalty Oaths 5. Taft-Hartley Act 6. Correspondence Regarding the Above Column 7. House Committee on Un-American Activities 8. "Plain Talk About Wallace" 9. "Liberals in This Year of Decision" 10. Dispute with Francis Cardinal Spellman 11. Correspondence Regarding the Above Column 12. Address to Americans for Democratic Action 13. "If I Were a Republican Today" 14. Senator Joseph McCarthy 15. Alger Hiss 16. "Social Responsibility for Individual Welfare' 17. Stevenson Campaign Address 18. Segregation in the South 19. The Smith Act 20. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 21. Stevenson on the Civil Rights Bill 22. Correspondence with Lyndon Johnson Regardomg the Above Column 23. "Ike--'Nice Man Poor Leader';Nixon--'Anything to Get Elected' " 24. "Why I Am Opposed to 'Right to Work' Laws" 25. Statement on Behalf of the National Consumers League 26. Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 27. Stevenson, Kennedy and the 1960 Democratic Convention 28. Campaigning for Kennedy 29. Presidential Commission on the Status of Women 30. "The Social Revolution"

About the Author :
Allida M. Black is research professor of history, and project director and editor of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers at The George Washington University. She is the author of Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism (Columbia) and the editor of "What I Hope to Leave Behind": The Essential Essays of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Review :
An extraordinary collection of her letters, speeches, columns, and essays... This volume should become a standard work for the new century. Chicago Sun-Times The intelligent writings of Roosevelt are both a tonic and a balm in this time of rampant doublespeak. Allida Black... has worked through the immense treasure trove of Eleanor Roosevelt's writings to make these jewels of common sense, candor, and generosity of spirit accessible to all readers. Booklist Black... has struck archival gold. Library Journal