This second volume encompasses the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the gathering storms of World War II - the years of the Roosevelt's greatest challenges and accomplishments. This biography restores Eleanor Roosevelt to her place as a visionary policymaker and social activist with her own agenda, often ahead of her more circumspect husband. From the day she entered the White House - and began holding press conferences for female journalists only - Eleanor Roosevelt worked indefatigably for justice and equality. She wrote, she published, she travelled, she lobbied, she joined grass roots organizations and radical communities with a zeal that sparked controversy everywhere. Cook gives us the complete Eleanor Roosevelt - a loyal wife, a devoted mother, a woman who courted romance and adventure, America's most compelling, charismatic, and visionary First Lady. She took unpopular stands and often countered her husband's policies, particularly concerning racial justice, women's rights, the plight of refugees, and approaches to fascism and the Spanish Civil War. And in November 1938, after Kristallnacht, as Europe drifted towards war, she took an unprecedented and courageous stance on race relations and bigotry. Intimate, sympathetic and acute, this is an unparalleled portrait of a woman whose life was filled with passionate commitment and who struggled for personal fulfilment.

It is a biography of vibrant scholarship and daring, a book for all readers of American history and politics.