Because we are so thrilled to welcome blance cook. Im jennifer raab, privilege to be president of Hunter College, incredible institution. And it could not be for fitting that we are here tonight to celebrate this book and this author and this subject in this house. As everyone sitting here, that is really true, right. [applause] as all of you know we are gathered in the new york city home that ellen oar Eleanor Roosevelt lived here and depart today washington in 1933 and while the book we are deb cuting here tonight cover it is war years and decades after when Eleanor Roosevelt not only became the lady of the land but the first lady of the world. Its fair too say that her activism, belief in womens rights and quest for equal opportunity and civil right were all commitment that is were born and nurtured under this roof. This was the headquarters that launched her into becoming the eleanor who made impact on her country and this planet. As this house was a home and inspiration for Eleanor Roosevelt, so this house home and school was incredible inspiration to the extraordinary author whose work we will be celebrating and that is blanche. [applause] but this is really the talk weve all been waiting for because its the celebration [laughter] you know never with blanche biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. New york times best seller published in 1992 when someone named clinton was running for president. We have come a long way. Yes. [laughter] took eleanor to the white house and seven years later in 1999 appeared. Never before the essential reel eleanor played in setting moral and political agendas of her husbands administration. Even when fdr not as blanche did not followed eleanors advice. We are happy that blanche worked long in this volume and four president ials have come and nearly gone in the years since roosevelt house has returned as essential part of Hunter College, sort of like we were waiting for you blanche and able to celebrate launch in place and views of eleanors spirit in one of the most beautiful portraits upstairs. We follow eleanor through world war 24, fdrs death and along the new pass of her own public life including the founder founding of the un which is, of course, launched in hunters Uptown Campus in the bronx and eleanors championship of human rights. Rarely has a biography so brilliantly depicted the intersection of the historical pictures including accounts between eleanor and franklin during the war as personal and political strains in their relationship. As one concludes, for eleanor what carol has done for lyndon johnson. Its fair to say that no one has fallen in eleanors footsteps and forged new pass for first ladies life in a way Hillary Clinton has done. She credited eleanor as inspiration nearly every step of the way, hillary had always how much she thought of Eleanor Roosevelt one of her heros, larger than life but always approachable. It is a homecoming for blanche. One our most accomplished alumni, of course. She has enjoyed career as writer and as a teacher and like eleanor as an activist and is now a distinguished professor at college and graduate center. In addition to her biography of eleanor shes the authored of cristal easement of women and revolution, she has a familiar face not only at hunter but many appearances through recent documentary, so blanchei hope tonight you will talk about your encounters with Eleanor Roosevelt and we are in the room where it happened. Someone so dear for Hunter College for making us so proud and for being the quintessential. People say that was maybe written for blanche and others, so we will have to choose. Tonight blanche joins us in the audience but a shoutout for the roosevelt family. Its always wonderful to have you and frank back and have lulu with you making the circle for the roosevelt family. [applause] and also great shoutout, we are talking about women with great political courage. We have eddie in the room who so many of us have to tell the story and courage for human rights. [applause] finally, our own wonderful Assembly Woman who is pushing ahead through so many things for new york city but in particular for her neighborhood institution Hunter College. The wonderful becky. [applause] without more due, its wonderful to have mvp, book critic and bill goldstein in conversation with blanche. Thank you for being here. Weve been waiting for this day. As for president says and i personally waited since this day when i met you interviewing you when i worked at the new york times. Why dont we talk about the story of the reading here at hunter and its a good way as any to get into your lifes work and yours. Thank you so much president for that wonderful introduction and all the wonder people here who are hunter connected and i have to say it caught my partner, my muis, my editor, how lucky a biographer married to a dramatist and i mean, really, all the way from california hunter was the home of audry and all the way from california are my god children Jonathan Rollins and judy wallace. Im so grateful you are here audrys children. Got married at roosevelts hughes. [applause] one more very quick connection. Kate whitney and i got to be friends because of a man who we both depended on for advice and vision, julias, theres a plaque for julias and at some point he introduced us and had regular lunches and these expanded my vision, my heart, julias motto when he was vice chairman of the City University was very simple, its better for everybody when it is better for everybody. [laughter] judy is here and was the editor of the paper and are i was Vice President of nsa in 62. In my junior year i was president of Hunter College and with invited them to roosevelt house to give a talk and she walked in and she electrified the room which was feeling quite amazing and had a message for us. Important things are happening in North Carolina. [laughter] that was her message and i was president , we took two buses for North Carolina whereupon we got arrested and it was kind of nasty person, hunter at the time married kathy who was, i think, from alabama and she wanted me to be suspended for breaking the law but said it was a good thing and so i wasnt suspended. There was hunter student, my hunter gang. I cant tell you how grateful i am to hunter and then frank and jink are here. Thank you, thank you, the grandchildren. There are so many people in the room, my sister marjorie, but its really selffor freedom which changed my life forever. Maybe you should go south again and register voters very quickly. North carolina seems to be an important state again. North carolina is actually the naa suing, imagine that. North carolina with blockage going on. [laughter] okay. As soon as you leave and i have a god daughter who is an everybody came. Elizabeth is here. All the children are here. Call my guy. Thank you. [applause] thank you, thank you. I will stop. One of the things that its a three volume book. Theres too much to talk about from the beginning of Eleanor Roosevelt to the end. Im going to try to focus as much as possible in this book but we obviously have to get to themes of her life that you followed through the three volumes. The thing that struck me about this book and the second volume in particular is the title i would give to both of those books is eleanors fight because it seems as if she has a vision that in many ways correlates with franklin, build from franklin and interwoven and additional things that sees that isnt the political exped ient that shes looking for. If you can tell me a little bit about what animates eleanors vision in particular both as distinct from franklins plans and ideas and also in the way in which they tie together. You know, the question what animates her is so important. And that really is all about her alcoholic family. Her father died at the age of 344. How much do you have to drink . Here we are, we have been drinking too much for a long time and we are almost 80. Some of us. How much do you have to drink to die at age 34 and what was that like . Her mother died when she was eight essentially turning and her father died when she was ten and eleanor had the Great Fortune to go to school in england and meet the mentors that those of us like hunter had mentors who made us what we are. Theres still noo no biography. Ive been at the center for many years and every semester i tell my students easter and she was a great mentor and her message was what do you think . What is your opinion . She didnt want anybody to repeat anything, she said, and if you wrote a paper that repeated what she said, she would tear it up. That was Eleanor Roosevelts lifelong journey. Everywhere she went, tell me, what do you want. What do you need and the goal was to make it better for all people specially people in want, in need in trouble. And so the new deal, think of it, the new deal confronted the depression with the goal of full employment and the goal of Affordable Housing for everybody, full employment and Affordable Housing and education, excellent quality education for everybody and Eleanor Roosevelt began in 1943 to talk about free tuition. Why dont we have Free College Tuition for boys and girls at a time women, i mean, as the first woman in the History Department at john hopkins it was segregated by race and by gender until in our lifetime but Eleanor Roosevelt was fighting that and she was fighting that beginning in the 1930s and in volume two i have this incredible speech she makes in 1934, may 1934 in which the educated of america pass a resolution, segregation has to go. It hurts children of color and it hurts white children who are certify saided that they are somehow better when, in fact, theyre not and the language of that resolution of 1934 is the pretty much the language of brown versus the board of education whereupon Eleanor Roosevelt strides up and did the speech that she wasnt expected to give, supporting this great even of the educators of america have opposed segregation and she sighs this is it, this is what we must do. We must recognize that we all goo ahead go ahead tooght oar we go down together. Whats interesting in the books you quote her in letters to friends and family, almost undermining, not pulling her own political skills. She constantly underplays them as if she doesnt know politics and yet she really does on the evidence of your books and what i think is important is that while claiming that shes not an expert politician she is working both for and with franklin but also in a larger way around him. I was fascinated by the variations in the things that she should show him, the speeches or writings before, sometimes she would and then other times she wouldnt. If you can talk about how she did that artfully, what she shared and what she didnt that really worked amazing in the country even it was rhetorical vision. Not always politically expedient. I think her great gift toos her was recognition that we need today build movement. She made politicians see their support for these issues because there are the dixie contracts and the the Democratic Party is dominated by the southern Democratic Party and and then they are the greed heads and Eleanor Roosevelt speaks against greed. She uses that word. We must end greed. You have to go door to door and she called it trooping for democracy and built movements, then you can have change. That was her, you know, that was her contribution and she i always say never go anywhere without your gang because i was born in the bronx and at a gang, i never say never go anywhere without a gang but she never went anywhere without the women of the Democratic Party and the progressive folks who were her allies. Fdr was much better at juggling because he had to negotiate those conservatives realities. But she didnt, she we wanted to organize movements. Does that answer . I would like to know really a little bit more about their political and personal reactions to one another other these conflicts because you show how interconnected their lives obviously were and in ways that dissatisfying at other times. The bottom line Eleanor Roosevelt actually said that fdr does not silence her. They really do share a vision of what the end goal should be. Where they disagree is what is possible. Having to keep the republicans out of office how do we juggle, we need advice here. I wont go there. Some folks dont know how to do it. She was respectful, the only time he did silence were issues on International Reality where why was that so touchy then . Give us some examples. The biggest and most touchy is rescue of the jews which is a major party and the silence beyond the pair in volume two, 32 to 38, silence beyond repair and then in this volume the great tragedy and then again theres no biography yet of two of the is an amazing hero in my opinion because really shes part of the german underground, american friends and german freedom and its really true to who makes the rescue operation which is the only rescue operation that is successful during before the war in 1940 and and let me just say that one of the things that i deal with in this room book, this book happens because of joe, happens because of kate simpson here. And let me just say that was very nice because it took me a very long time to research eisenhower in a place called abeline, kansas. Abeline is place where you cant even get wine for dinner. [laughter] and so we believe yes, yes. So i believe go play with the sheriffs and you would shoot guns and, you know, drink. Academic work gets done. This went on for a long time and kate sent me books to review and one book she sent me was this nasty little book on written who couldnt stand what she was reading. She couldnt stand it and said these letters couldnt possibly mean what they seem to me and so when i got back i called joe and joe and i had gotten to be friends because he blurred my this is a book that you would stay in print forever and you get to be friends with people who [laughter] joseph flash who wrote eleanor and franklin in 1971. Who wrote consequently three other books and a great steam biographer and whats up you not having even mention anywhere in your book and he said, i hated her. Lets talk about it. So we had dinner and why he hated her because she was frankly a bigot. She was a racist and antisemite and very rude to joe, but one of the things that i dont do sufficiently in the book is all of the jealousy. I dont deal with it. Neither did e loan or roosevelt. She ignored the jealousies around her gang. Wonderful. They are all having dinner together. Right. They all hated each other. [laughter] the bottom line, joe, joe said why dont you do it. A historian with ph. D from John Hopkins University in military history and, you know, i said, dont be silly, i do history. [laughter] actually, you know, you know i was doing diplomatic and military history. Okay, bye. And i would be done. 1984. It didnt happen that way. The original update was october 11th. Eleanor roosevelts biography until today. [laughter] really . I didnt know that. Thats funny. The bottom line is over the years, joe died in 1998. She said i hate your book. Of course, what she hated tell us a little bit about what you say in the book about hick that made hate it and other people agreed. I dont think she was a homophobic. She just hated how important it was to Eleanor Roosevelt. As i said in the book, it may not always be a cigar but its a northeast and they dont know what happens. The doors are closed and shades are drawn. We know she sat before the fire at home in connecticut and just burned hundreds of letters that were too specific and we all lost of earl millers correspondence which was a great loss. And i really think everybody should look at miller volume 2. New category, why not. Eleanor had to do with franklin, other women, the wife, really admires and treated with respect and love as a junior wife but miller who was the e escort and exampling companion and they road horses together. Theres that. There were lots and lots of papers that all of a sudden disappeared. Nebraska knows why or how but they are gone. So what youre saying really is that your books grew from the biographer himself, the last biographer who recognized the gaps in his own book and wanted them filled by another historian, another biographer, thats a really inspirational force. It is. And joe joe gave a speech in which he said e line Eleanor Roosevelt is infinite. Honor legacy and even the cause of her death. So Eleanor Roosevelt is infinite as joe said and there will be lots of people doing lots of things. They have a lot of instructions from you. The last years of of Eleanor Roosevelt, there was another person and you judith. Let me go back to judy. The last visit i had i had in martha vineyards. Nobody is giving up credit. She never mentioned the operations to be discussed and banged her fist on the table and said, dont write that. And i said, well, im going write it. Tell me the story. And she said it was to protect her family and the first was to protect her children and then i realized that was crazy because when joe was writing about her divorce and the three children she had with elliot and then i found out from the children who deposited ten books boxes of books in our dining room. Pretty soon it will be again. Yes, it will. I promise. [laughter] so that it was to protect the family. She had two brother that is fought here and two brother that is fought there. The hunter connection is interesting. Ph. D from the university in 1931 and got a job at hunter to teach at hunter so she came here and she was very involved with the International Student service which was rescue rescue operations for all kinds of students in trouble everywhere and she met elliott who was a progressive in one of the richest member in America Pratt institute and they they fell in love and she goes back to berlin to run a nazi paper in 1932 and the nazis destroy the office, killed her friends, the houses, destroyed and invaded and hitler comes in power in january 33. They are back here and they got married in berlin in 1932 and she had two brothers who fought here and sister who was such a nazi would never meet joe and so thats what she meant but and so trudas work was german underground and rescue and she and elliot pratt go back and get dozens of people out. Its really an incredible story that somebody needs to write. One of the things so important about eleanors life is two things, you show her in the books commitment to young people in particular. Like to say a little bit about that but also the wide circle of friends who often didnt like one another or were jealous of one another. It seems like they all sensed as you made clear and eleanor knew about herself that she had a great leanliness and she often amazingly to us reading about her life felt her selfoften useless and not having achieved in any given moment what it was that she wanted to achieve but this loneliness that she had and she kept around her friends to keep the loneliness at bay which was another reason why she kept herself so bus you so if you can speak about the link between her loneliness and her commitment to use and her political vision, i think, that sums up a lot of what youre looking. Thats so interesting. She really was lonely. She had it was like a hole in her heart it was just never filled. And she would she was a serial romantic and she would go she would adopt somebody like Paulie Murray and a new biographyy which you have her here, you know, pulling her is black activist who eleanor really saw that she was a great organizer and a great fire brand and really promoted her and they became very close and paulie was always shocked that Eleanor Roosevelt invited her to her home and had her for dinner with lots of other people around then there was joe. And why esther was so important, if i may. Esther is really voofled with american medicine and she wants what we now call single payer. A single payer Healthcare Plan where everybody is covered just the way it is done in most of europe, the eu and she wanted that beginning, it was speesed to be in the Social Security act of 1935 and then eisenhower calls on esther and Eleanor Roosevelt to help him with what he thinks is going to be a plan called medicare and medicaid. He gives the pen that he signs medical law with esther who waves it in front of the press. And she continues to fight for what would be single payer until she dies at the age of 100 in 1982. And here we are with barely any more bones. With extra bone on the you know, really. Singlepayer health care to form a union. In my opinion. So the loneliness was as a result you said in the beginning of her childhood as the daughter of a great alcoholic and her brother called, died just before world war ii begin. At the same time almost sarah died and that moment seems to both obviously depress her but liberator in a certain sense of world war ii gets underway almost as if she has fewer about what she can do visavis frank lib and even on the world stage. Its obviously because the war is underway but she travels widely around the world after that and if you can Say Something about her International Troubles as the years of franklin and she had done domestically in the new deal, she once again feels that even though shes doing this that somehow its shunting her aside even though shes doing this great diplomatic work with the armed forces and its striking how different her own view is of what she is doing from what it seems is actually being accomplished on the daytoday basis. Well, she had wanted, first in 1940 when roosevelt and hall die, she wanted a job. She wanted to go to europe and become jealous. Yes. She wanted to become a journalist and report from the front. Then she wanted a job and she thought she could be a diplomat and she because she spoke so many languages and french, german, italian, i dont think she spoke spanish very well. [laughter] but the bottom line is she really thought she could do some wonderful diplomatic work and she didnt get a job and then he seemed to send her away when hes meeting with people she doesnt want she doesnt want her to interfere with like churchill and she goes first to england and thats an amazing trip and everybody is astonished. Everything that really everybody should read that chapter. In england during the war and during the height of maddens, Eleanor Roosevelt in the pacific, thats amazing, totally amazing. Attraction with the soldiers and Say Something about it. The pictures in the book of that tour are so touching and moving to see. Well, she really does she really does visit every single Military Hospital and speaks to every single wounded officer and she doesnt just say what is your name and she gets there home address to write to their parent and she gets this stories and gets whats personal and she spends time with everybody and the other thing she does is she really protests the cruelties of segregation. The obscenity of segregation on military basis everywhere. And then theres people really seem to like the incredible story, she goes in to an africanamerican cantine and sees an american soldier eating ice cream and says may i have a bite of your Ice Cream Cone and she takes it and bites it and gives it back, no, that didnt hurt at all, did it . But its that kind of thing that shes amazing. She created friends wherever she went. We dont realize hue segregation in the military how long segregation in the military and segregation in general and it was eisenhower who by executive order integrated every single military base. Truman said he was going to do it but he didnt and it was eisenhower fired every colonel who didnt integrate. Folks dont know blood plasma was segregated, white and white, christian and hebrew during world war ii and in 1958 issues executive order to integrate blood clots and the head of the red cross, one of his great military buddies former general writes you cant do this, ike said, they wont get any blood, done. [laughter] leadership, okay. Well, one of the things i found so moving about Eleanor Roosevelts autobiography is she did a lot of autobiography and its so frack. Its almost impossible to believe that it published in the late 40s, books in the 50s that she was as honest as she was about her relationship with franklin. Her view of franklin. Its on the last page of the book. Her conclusion about what kind of wife he might have liked and what she was able to do for him and the sentence that has always lived in my mind, for years, at the end of your book, i was one of those who served his purposes and what do you think, it seems both a happy thing and with saddens at the same time. What do you think she meant about the summation of her relationship with she uses the word goad. There were times where he puts a very high what do you call it, drawers between the rooms so she cant walk back and forth and say, franklin, in this basket i have 20 things i want to talk to you about tonight. Which she did. She would bring them into dinner. Right. Wonderful. So he didnt like that and more and more he doesnt want it and sometimes he realizes he needs it and so they have this on again, off again conversation. But she does recognize that hes not always happy. Its interesting when hall and roosevelt died theres a moment when the children notice that fdr really is very warm and embracing and at that moment when the two of them are in mourning, fdr says, well, perhaps, we could get back together again and doesnt want to. No way. No, no. I have an independent right now and i have to keep that independent life now and you have and thats fine. You know, but there is that one moment where there could have been another but Eleanor Roosevelt didnt want to be the housewife. She wanted, you know, she was writing a daily column. She had a radio show. You know, shes out there. Out and about and that that seals her heart. Thats what she needs. Somebody were her first love. And not an individual person. Not an individual person. And so i would like to ask you before we go to questions from the ad yins about your work as biographer for all of these years since joe lash first showed you the paper that is would be the basis of your book, i have two questions. One is youre talking about the letters of loraine and the story of earl miller. Those were controversial to viewers as truda didnt like the books and misread them and as you say, you are laying out that this is the evidence, this is what is said in the letter and yet, youre not drawing the conclusions that were claimed for you in the conclusions. The books seem to open much more than they collies, have you thought differently about the reaction too the first volume in particular and do you think other historians have thought differently about what you did, so thats my first question and then i have one more question. So amazing. I think the world has changed dramatically so that we could get married. Imagine that. We were all in the closet once and audrey and i taught a class at john jay, the first womens study class in 1970s, american women black and white and the girls in the bar are pals. They invaded and the cops at john jay were all Police Officers and they start today bring wives, sweethearts and their mothers and the class got to be huge and astonishing and we were posing as divorced women, but we were out here and then we had the Gay Academic Union meeting and there was a fire drill and the president of john jay in the elevator the day after the first meeting of Gay Academic Union, it was that long ago. I hear that you had a great meeting. We were out but from the 70s to the 90s we all went very forward, theres a straight woman who has done a new book on eleanor and hick and shes a straight woman who says, but, of course, they were lovers and she credits hick to shaping Eleanor Roosevelt which is a little bit beyond. Yeah. Eleanor it was hick that said look at all the letter that is you write to me. Everybody wants to know how you spend your day and hick and i do say that in volume too in 1936 and from that moment on theres where is my dad. We really just traveled a very wonderful road to this moment and theres backlash and in saturday and the man running with the trumpite is one of the nastiest bigots on gay issues in our history. I mean u you know, should i say i would like to give just Eleanor Roosevelts advice to women and political life. May i . Sure. Okay. Because i sent this to Hillary Rodham clinton long ago. You cannot take anything personally, you cannot bare grudges, you must finish the days work when the days work is done. You cannot get discouraged too easily, you have to take defeat over and over and it goes on, women who are willing to be leaders must stand out and be shoot at more and more they are going to do it and more and more they should do it, but remember she added, every woman in public life needs to develop skin as tough as rynosorus hive. [laughter] [applause] before we goo to questions, the thing that ive wondered, is youve worked on this book for over three volumes for over 30 years and the question that i woonder about is did your ideas about Eleanor Roosevelt change, so the things that are in the first or second volume, for example, you would do differently now or do you look back and think, well, there are themes i missed, i didnt lay them out properly all the way through. I would like to know how you think of your own work at the end of it as if you look at what you found at the end so you can talk about it at the beginning . The two thats a great question. Let me just say Eleanor Roosevelt never stopped growing and changing. So as one goes chronologically. I mean, shes always surprising, theres always something new and shes always knew about it. But now the issues have changed. Eleanor roosevelt really despised the u. S. Prison system and here we have the prison industrial complex. We have more people incarcerated than any other country in the world and Eleanor Roosevelt would visit women in prison, she would go to prisons and write articles and say, ah, it could have been any one of the women inside and i always wondered if that meant she too could have killed her husband. [laughter] i never knew. But the bottom line is we should not have prisons. She really was for what we call restorative justice, okay. We need counseling, we need medical programs, we need social work and we need full employment and we need quality education and at one point she said, i could give you both employment and 100 literacy. How . One teacher, five students. Do we need that . Its that kind of vision that she had and that she went around. Then real quick the boys in the school which was a Reform School for children, she would have them for dinner, encouraged music and sports, what did children need, they need music and sports . Well, here we live in a moment when we are closing off in public schools, first of all, we are closing public schools, second of all, we are ending music and sports programs. This is an atrocity and so im happy to say the unions have been protesting and, of course, we need unions, music and sports to have 100 literacy and full employment. Its all here that i would spend more time on her opposition to prisons. So there are issues that have developed over the last 30 years that you see she was really a visionary about. Yes. And thats part of the thats a wonderful way of ending why the last part of the book is her legacy, yeah, and she wanted all she wanted human rights and dignity meaning, you know, full employment, economic security, housing, education, jobs for everybody and at one pint she was told not to support the economic and social rights of universal declaration of human rights and she said to truman, you cant talk human rights to people who are hungry and if you want me not to support this, i will resign whereupon truman says, no, no, dont resign, follow convictions and so the u. S. Supports the entire package but its supposed to be united and to divide economic and social rights with civil from civil and Political Rights was a compromise she agreed to that i regret, im sure she regretted and the u. S. To this day have not had one conversation about economic and social rights. Jimmy carter brought up the universal declaration of human rights during his administration. It was not voted upon. It was not ratified. It was George Walker bush who after the soviet union collapsed said, okay, now its time to support the civil and political covenant of the University Declaration of human rights. So most of the world supports both covenants but we dont. There is a group that is fighting to get economic and social rights covered on the agenda and if hillary is elected, we are going to try to have hillary be the one to ratify the economic and social rights covenant. The unfinished work of eleanor roocion velt, i think at that moment we should stop and open it to questions from the audience. Thank you, blanche cook for being here. [applause] we have a microphone that will go around for your questions. Theres someone at the back. Jonathan. Yes, you do. Youre on cspan. How obviously franklin died in 45 before the cold war really began and so how did eleanor unsilenced, reconciled the imperatives of cold war politic and the bed fellows that that put america with with her commitment too universal human rights . Eleanor roosevelt actually became a bit of an anticommunist, a very vigorous anticommunist but she said we have to keep talking with each other and she would invite soviet members of the delegation to her home for dinner, for lunch, we have to keep talking to each other, we dont want war but she didnt trust the soviets at all and a lot of negotiations, i will support this if you support that went on and so, you know, the universal declaration of human rights gets passed and the soviets abstain over some issues but they dont vote against it. And that was her juggling. Does that answer your question . More questions . Im shocked. Thank god. The microphone. One of the founders with bella and judy. [applause]. Why dont we have more activity, you know, more distress and anger today . All the young people today are quiet. Well, is this a question you can answer, or should we maybe other people can answer it, younger people. But i have to say i feel very encouraged. First of all, let me say two things. Eleanor roosevelt always said patriotism is politically incorrect. [laughter] so i believe that. And i feel very optimistic because i think black lives matter is a movement. I think that our students, you know, i had a class the first day of class, they were all last semester they all went out for bernie, they went to the park. They said, arent you going to take us to the park . I said, what do you mean . It was class. We want to go to the park for bernie, so they all went. Theyre all veterans. My students are veterans at john jay. Going to the pack for bernie. So this semester they were all for bernie, and they didnt want to vote. And so i persuaded them that they really had to vote because we could push Hillary Rodham clinton to the progressive folds that we need to push her. We need a movement. We dont want a man who looked like mussolini and sounds like hitler. [applause] we need a movement. And so by the third class, i think i did persuade them. But they are so, theyre so vigorous, and they, you know, commondreams. Org, they read it every day. They come in with lots of things to argue about. I feel very hopeful. And i feel very hopeful about the movements that are organized everywhere. I feel frightened by the call to fascism and violence that were seeing coming from those people. And its a very scary moment, i agree with you to that extent, its a very its frightening. Absolutely frightening. And i want to say a word about john edgar cozy [laughter] i mean, email, you know, how many million homeless people, over 30 million homeless americans, and over that number, over half of the number of homeless americans are veterans. And nobodys talking about homeless americans. Then there are all the incarcerated. Then there are all the unemployed. And were talking about emails . So one looks at Eleanor Roosevelts fbi file, j. Edgar hoover hated Eleanor Roosevelt. And her fbi files, which we got through the freedom of information act, are unbelievable. He hates her personally, and he calls her that old cow. He actually has lines, the old cow is at it again. And shes has friends who are communists, and the old cow is meeting with the communists. Now, every immigrationist, every civil rights leader has [inaudible] all the great southern, white integrationists were attacked by John Edgar Hoover and called communists. Who else would be for integration except a communist . And, of course, none of them were. Virginia derr . I mean, please. Anyway so youre hopeful. Im hopeful, but who the hell promoted this man to new fbi head . I mean, he was george woodbridges appointment. Whats he doing here, and why is he doing it, and why isnt he being removed instead of her, Hillary Clinton, being hounded . Its really aggravating. In my opinion. [applause] oh, a question from upstairs about Eleanor Roosevelt. [laughter] is there a microphone . Oh, were bringing you a microphone. Thank you. Well, blanche did to me 54 years ago what i hope hillary will do to trump. I was the runnerup. I ran against her at the hunter in 1961 because my brother said blanche has nobody running against her, thats undemocratic. Edith, you have to run against her. I said, i like blanche. I want blanche to win. He said, but its democracy. You have to run against her. Did you run a very bad campaign on purpose in. He did. He ran for president of, at the bronx. I ran against blanche. After my brother, they had the elections the same day. My brother proudly came home, and he said his campaign was im for me first, and he lost by one vote, his own. [laughter] i, however, prepared a speech that blanche could maybe be proud of and not ashamed of when she was running against me. There were 3,000 faces in the audience. I was not a happy camper. Blanche, i was so glad you won. [laughter] i am you cannot know how loved she was and how active she was. Now, my question is for blanche, and then i have a comment about my brothers relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. My brother and i went to our mother, we were students at hunter in the bronx, and we said, mom, were signing up to go on the freedom rides. And she said do you have to, it is very dangerous. And we said, mom, thats the way you raised us. And she said, youre right, you have to go. Never been so proud of my mother in my life. Blanche, how did your parents react . They were supportive. Isnt that wonderful . Yes. They were supportive. You know . And its not because they didnt love us. No. [laughter] they thought it was the right thing to do. They thought it was the right thing to do. They thought it was the right thing to do. And now my brother and i, when we were at hunter and many of blanches and my mutual friends, started an Organization Called students for a Democratic Society not students, but citizens. Citizens for Democratic Society. We would have all the colleges in new york, city colleges or nyu, whatever, come as a group and support candidates that we felt would represent what roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt represented. And we, we supported those candidates. They won, we got rid of tammany hall. That was still around, people were still around. We got a lot of really excellent candidates elected because we worked hard. But heres his meeting. We needed somebody on our board to give us credibility, and my brother heard that Eleanor Roosevelt was going to be on television. So he went early, and she was on stage, and he went up to say hello to her and talk about our group and her perhaps being on the board. She said, oh, thats so interesting. Saul, please sit down and talk to me about it. And then the lights went on, and he was on television. [laughter] and she introduced him on the show, and he got to participate. And at the end, she said not only will i sign up, but i am going to have senator lehman sign also. And just an amazing woman. So, and thank you for writing those incredible books. Tell everybody your name. Saul jacobson, edith jacobson. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, the books were incredible. I presented them to my children, and theyre all your heroes. We have time for one more question. Front row. I notice that you call the years 19331938 in your previous volume the defining years for eleanor. My sense is they were also the defining years for franklin, and i wonder if you have any insight as to how he moved from the 1933 franklin to the 1938 franklin in your work and writing. I think that as the new deal unfolded and as he saw what was possible especially about housing and farm security, there was so many changes. They were wonderful. And i think, you know, there was henry wallace, and he was very important. So i think that fdr just, i mean, i dont know i didnt, i didnt write that. It was the editor called it the defining years, because but i think that was apt. And it really is who can we be, what can we be in this country. Can we really be a democracy. Can we have opportunity for everybody, housing for everybody, education for everybody. And that became the goal. It became franklins to goal and eleanors goal. And i think theres some effort really to make that happen during the height of the new deal. And after it was Eleanor Roosevelt who really is responsible for the g. I. Bill of rights. Education for everybody. Real opportunity. This has to happen. And that, you know, reagan defunded and deboned so much, and the reagan revolution, you know, is really horrific, and the years after in these neoliberal what the hell is it movement. But i think a new movement is aborning, new movements are aborning, and we just have to continue the fight. Its never over til its over. Revolution is about the process. Its not an event. [laughter] [applause] well, thank you, blanche. [applause] thank you very much, blanche. Congratulations, and we will have a reception upstairs and a book signing in the four freedoms room, and thank you all for coming and, once again, thank you thank you. [applause] this is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our prime time lineup. Tonight starting at 6 30 p. M. Eastern, chuck rosh talks about his book, imperfect union, a fathers searching for his son in the aftermath of the battle of gettysburg. At 7 30 p. M. , psychologist James Mitchell discusses his involvement in the cias enhanced interrogation program. And on booktvs after Words Program at 9 p. M. Eastern, Harvard Business School Professor eugene soltis examines white collar crime. Then at ten, fox news anchor megyn kelly recalls her life and career. And we wrap up our sunday prime time lineup at 11 wior
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