The first thing that should be said about The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia is that it is a "good read." You can open it anywhere and read fascinating information about Eleanor Roosevelt's life, friends, family, work, and political causes. You can follow the asterisks in the text to related entries, or you can read successive entries, learning serially and serendipitously about Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, ER's social secretary who became romantically involved with FDR; ER's friend Rose Schneiderman, a Polish immigrant who became one of the most important labor leaders of the twentieth century; the scholarly debate over ER's sexuality; and Alfred Smith, Democratic presidential nominee in 1928. Everyone who was active in the progressive movement is here, as well as political organizations, foreign leaders, and discussions of such topics as television, the anti-lynching movement, birth control, the democratic party, ER's biographers, and the United Nations. Most especially, the amazing fullness of Eleanor Roosevelt's life is here. Small wonder that Hillary Clinton wanted to talk to her when she became first lady.

Maurine Beasley, Henry R. Beasley, and Holly C. Shulman have produced an outstanding reference work on Eleanor Roosevelt. They have enlisted an array of distinguished authors to write about every aspect of Mrs. Roosevelt's life, and the result is a fascinating collection of essays that range from her impact on the institution of the First Lady to the many social causes that she championed. Well illustrated and comprehensive in its coverage, the book is rewarding for the insights it provides into one of the most important women in American history and is simply an excellent reading experience on its own terms. This is a volume that belongs in every school and public library that wants to provide a lively, reliable, and perceptive introduction to the life and career of the First Lady of the World, as Mrs. Roosevelt was known. Anyone interested in Eleanor Roosevelt will also want to own this book.

Lorena Hickok, special investigator for Harry Hopkins, traveled the country reporting on the human dimension of life during the Depression, while at the same time evaluating the impact of New Deal policies and programs and support for Roosevelt. Her reports read like letters, honest and open, down to earth. She talked to governors, tenant farmers, labor leaders, children working in the fields, social workers, down and out transients, former press colleagues, people on the edge of survival - and everyone in between. Hickok struggles with issues of white collar workers on relief vs the working class and chronically poor. Her ignorance on race issues is apparent when visiting the South and Southwest, but reading these reports is also instructive on attitudes of the times. I picked up this book because I was interested in the life of Lorena Hickok, who was the AP's highest paid female reporter before taking the job with Hopkins, and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. What I got was a window into her world, but much more than that. Highly recommended for those interested in the US in the 1930s, the Depression years, and for fans of Hick.