This information do we have the ability to extract their intelligence . So on and so forth. Why not . I dont know how they did is from Carnegie Mellon university coauthor of the book steamy streaming stealing data cable or satellite provider. [inaudible conversations] good evening. I guess everybody did not get the memo to dress up but i could not not to be herere because brcs so thrilled if i have not had a chance to say hello to have that extraordinary privilege to be the president of the extraordinary institution and could not be most fitting that we are here tonight to celebrate this book cannot serve and this subject in this house. [applause] as solid you know, so well we are gathered this evening in the home Eleanor Roosevelt shared with her husband and her motherinlaw of laugh 25 years from the front steps that you enter today departing for washingtona 1933 to take on the burden of life and the lighthouse and the challenges and with the decades after when roosevelt became not just of first lady of the United States but of the world her activism and sense of justice the belief in womens rights and quest for civil rights were commitments borne and nurtured. Here raising expectations the headquarters that nadab and impact on her country in the planet. We are fortunate that fdr and eleanor decided to sell cause the clubhouse as an inspiration so the house is extraos an incredible inspiration tuesday author whose work we are celebrating and then we have Blanche Wiesen Cook to come back to celebrate your book in this home. [applause] she has spoken here sell many times but this is the talk we are waiting for it is the celebration of the of the long awaited finalal volume. The first volume was senior times best seller published 1992 when clinton was president and then in sevenr years later 1999. In that book and revealed as never before the moral and political agendas of the Administration Even when eleanor did not follow the vice. Working long enough on theth third volume that have caught on and on in the years sends with the essential part of Hunter College and that we can celebrate this use of their own experience following them through world war ii through her own public life with the founding of the unn th. And of course, the championship of humanrights 54 death 1962 reactor lee has it then depicted that intersection of historical figures including during the war as their relationship to include increased and then to use celebrate the of work during the election season and then to follow in the footsteps to forge the path for the first ladys life just like Hillary Clinton has done. Rly every step nearly every step of the way. And dc roosevelt as one of her personal heroes. As much as the celebrationio of tonight blanche was president of the Hunter College class 1962 and one of the most accomplished of long and illustrious career and is now a distinguished professor at John Jay College and and the authore of the eisenhower evolution and a familiar face through the recent documentary so i held tonight you will talk about your encounters so we are in the room where it happened. Ha [applause] also thinking for this incredible scholarship for making us though proud as the quintessential he could always tell her but you cannot tell her much. [laughter] maybe that was written for blanche and others. Tonight joining the audience with uh perfect shot out to the roosevelt family helping us realize that dream it is always wonderful. [applause] and also we add dd windsor in the room thinking for your courage. The on assemblywoman so it is wonderful with the book critic tbn conversation with Blanche Wiesen Cook. [applause] thanks for being here we have been waiting for this day and interviewing you from the new york times. And talk about the story of your meeting here it is as good a way to get into your life work. Thank you so much. To all of wonderful people here and i have to think clair and my editor. [applause] playw married to a playwright really. All the way from california and my guide children and i am so grateful that you are here to get married at roosevelt house. So what more quick connection we got to be friends because of a man we both depended on ford vice into have regular lunches and has expanded my vision and it was very simple when it is better for everybody. And also in the editor of the student paper and then i was Vice President and my, jr. Was president and invited Eleanor Roosevelt to give a talk. She electrified the room which was quite amazing and she had a message, important things are happening in north carolina. [laughter] that was her message and as a nasty person and she wanted me to beat and then 100 students here when i got the chance i cannot tell you how grateful. And then to change my life forever to make maybe you could register some voters really quickly. And for all of the voters and everybody came. Ank you. One of the t the first of all, this is a three volume book there is too much to talk about from the beginning of prolife through the end i will try to focus as much as possible on this book but we have to w get to the theme of her life that you follow the followed through the three volumes but what struck me through this volume and the killer is the title of would give to both of those books be ken says seems as if she has a vision in many ways correlates with franklin or is complete the interwoven. And that is the expedient thing so what animates perdition in particular . And also that they tie together . The question what animates her with the one toward need in trouble. Her and her father died at the age of 34, edged you have to drink . Here we are a long time, ht you have to drink and what was that like . The essentially turning her face to the world when she fortune and then to meet a the mentors of what theyve made us what they are at the Graduate Center for many years with that new biography so there is aat great educator to inspire route o a letter you evelt what do you think what is your opinion . She didnt want anybody to repeat what she said if you wrote a paper that repeated what she said she would carry that. At was her that is a lifelong journey. Tell me, what into you want or need clacks the goal is to make it better especially people in one and in need. To confront the depression with the goal of seoul employment. And housing for everybody and affordable housing. Education and Eleanor Roosevelt would talk aboute free tuition wide we have three College Tuition forbore ways and girls as a first woman the History Department segregated by race and gender but Eleanor Roosevelt was fighting in the 1930s. So i have this incredible speech from 1934 in which the educated at america pass a resolution. Go. Segregation has to go. It hurts children of color and white children but in fact, they are not. That is brown verses board of education. And then to give the speech she was not expected to give those that oppose segregation to say we must recognize that we all go down together. Through the end of her life. Q coulter in letters to friends and family not only in her own political skillsshe s as she does not knowti politics but she does and while claiming she is not an expert politician but is working for and with franklin in the of larger way around have with those b variations of what she would showed him the speeches of her life before and other times she wouldnt. So talk about how she did that mad as a political calculation that reallyy worked Amazing Things in the country even if all the rhetorical. But her great gift was the recognition that she understood that we need to build a movement to see the support for these issues. D the Democratic Party is dominated by the southern Democratic Party and then actually she uses the word to encourage democracy but you have to go door to door. Andh she calls the trouping for democracy. Yes you could have changed to said never go anywhere without the gang that she never went anywhere redoubt those progressive folks. And fdr was much better it juggling with those realities and wanted to organize movements. But but with that political levers small reaction over these conflicts be coz you do show in those three volumes how interconnected day word but in the ways at are satisfying to them in major dissatisfied and for political reasons. So the bottom line that fdr does not silence her and they really do share a vision of what the end game should be but what it is t possible . Had you keep uh dixiecrats quiet . We need some vice some folks dont know how to do that but the on the time he really did silence her. Why was that . Still make the biggest and most touching is the major part of this silence beyond repair volume to and then in this volume the great tragedy but again and anchor trade is an amazing he wrote because rarely she is part of the german underground and really they have that rescue operation which is the only rescue operation that is successful and so let me say at this happens and then working on eisenhower because it took a long time to research to be in a place called abilene kansas. That is a dry state you cannot even have wine with your dinner. But negative arafat a single malt. [laughter] so as with the the library to go play with the sheriff and we would drink. Laugh laugh spirit that is Academic Work really gets done. And then sent me books to review on hick and said she could not stand it she says these letters to not seem could not mean what they seem to mean. And this is of book that you can be friends with those people. [laughter] and then subsequently wrote other box as the esteemed biographer. And he said i hated her and frankly she was the big get. And was very rude but all of these agencies they just ignored all of the jealousies that would swell around her. And then living at the white house together . And the bottom line joes said why dont you do it . Sni may historian from Johns Hopkins dolby silly. But ive is doing diplomatic and military history. To penn then they took me to hide park and rebut it through the papers and the thing that roosevelt wanted to do dealing with with anything she wanted to do and said i dont care and he wrote that she did not care for xhosa there is a little story here from 1981 and i said i will deliver for the centennial. But did not happen that way. This year that a regional update was october , volume 3 with her biography. Really . [laughter] i did not know that. That is funny. The bottom line is over the years they did not read the book but they called me up and of course, what she hated was the story. Tell me what you say in the book of what they hated and that other people was agreed. Destroy so many letters we know she sat before the fire in connecticut and burned hundreds of letters that were too specific, and we also lost all of earl mellors correspondence which is a great loss. I think everybody should look at a photograph. He created a new category why not. Given that the junior wife she always admired and treated with respect and love as a junior wife and then this girl who was the escort they had talked together and ride horses together and slammed together, thats all i know they do. So theres that. The papers have disappeared and joe said that there were lots and lots of papers which all of a sudden disappeared. What you are saying is that your books grew from the biographer himself, who recognized the gaps in his own books thats a really inspirational force. He gave a speech in which he said Eleanor Roosevelt is infinite and theres been a lot of criticism about how the epilogue condenses the postwar years of the life into the legacy and i dont deal with the friendships so eleanor is infinite and there will be lots of people doing lots of big things. The last year there was another person let me go back because the last visit i had in Marthas Vineyard i said what is up with nobody getting credit for the . Operation because shes nevertid even mention when the operation is discussed. I said im going to write it, so tell me the story. She said its to protect her family. And at first i thought it was to protect her children but that was crazy because when joe was writing about the divorce and the three children she had with Elliott Pratt and then they deposited ten boxes of books in our dining room which has been our dining room for a long time. And it will be again. But it was to protect her family. She had two brothers that fought here and that fought their. Their. The connection is interesting. They got a job to teach at hunter so she came here and was very involved in the International Student service which was a rescue operation. She was a progressive and one of the richest men in america. She goes back to berlin and the nazis destroyed her office untit her friend they are destroyed and invaded. They got married in berlin in 1932 and he had two brothers that fought here and there. They go back in 1936 to get dozens of people out. It is an incredible story. One of the things that is so important about these people i think two things, you show in the commitment. They often didnt like one another or were jealous for one another is seen as he made clear she had a great loneliness and often amazingly to us reading about her life felt herself often useless and not having achieved in a given moment what it was that she wanted to achieve but this loneliness she kept her on he around her frienp the loneliness at a was another reason she kept herself so busy so if you speak about the link between her loneliness and commitment in addition sums up a lot of what the book is about. It was like a hole when her in t that has never failed. A wonderful black activist who eleanor saw as a great organizer and really promoted her. Then there is an endless number of people in the congress and then her old friends to escalate its like Eleanor Roosevelts political mentors so they are really involved. The singlepayer healthcar heale plan where everybody is covered just believe that its done in most of europe and the eu. Me it was supposed to be in the Social Security act of 1935 and then eisenhower called on Eleanor Roosevelt to help him with what he thinks is going to be a really good medical plan. They waved it in front of the press and she said now this represents what i had in mind. And she continues to fight for what would be singlepayer until she dies at the age of 100 in 1982. Ingle pa to help form the union eleanorge would involve the strike. The bei at the beginning of her childhood as a daughter of a great alcoholic and her brother died just before world war ii began at the same time so that moment seems to obviously depress her and liberate her as world war ii gets underway almost as if she has fewer inhibitions about what she can do even on the world stage. Y wit she once again feels it is somehow shunting her aside. Fe its striking how different her view is from what it seems is actually being accomplished on e daytoday basis. What she had wanted first in 1940 was a job. She wanted to become like clare booth luce. She wanted to become a journalist and report. Then she wanted a job and felt she could be a diplomat. I dont think she spoke spanish very well. But the bottom line is she really thought she could do some wonderful diplomatic work and then he seems to send her away when hes meeting with people they dont want her to interfere with what churchill so she goes first to england and this is an amazing trip and everybody is astonished. Roosevelt in the pacific is amazing. The pictures in the book are so touching. They visited one Military Hospital and speaks to every single wounded officer and she doesnt just say what is your name. She gets the home address to write to their parents and she gets their stories and whats personal and she spends time with everybody. On the military bases everywhere they like this incredible story onto an africanamerican canteen she goes and indices a soldier eating ice cream. Its that kind of thing thats amazing she created friends wherever she went. To this day in general it was eisenhower who by executive order integrated every single military base. Truman said he was going to do it but he didnt and they fired every car all that wasnt going to integrate and then folks dont know if a segregated black and white, christian and hebrew during world war ii and in 1958 he issued an executive order to integrate blood plasma and the head of the red cross who is one of those great military buddies writes you cant do this. They dont want integrated blooe and he said they wont get any blood, don. Leadership. One of the things i found so moving about the autobiography is she did a lot of autobiographical writing and its so frank its almost impossible to believe that its published in the late 40s she was as honest as she was about her relationship with franklin roosevelt. Youve quoted on the last page of your book her conclusion about what kind of life he might have liked and what she was able to do for him and the sentence that has always lived in my mind i was one of those that served his purposes. It seems both a happy thing and slated with sadness at the same time. What do you think she meant about that as a summation of the relationship . She uses the word that i was often it does and pushed him and he didnt like to be pushed all the time so there were times when he puts a very high chest of drawers between the rooms so she cant walk back and forth and say i have 20 things i want to talk to you about tonight, which she did. Then he realizes sometimes he needs it so they have this onagain and offagainff aga conversation. But he does recognize hes not always happy. Theres a moment when the children notice hes very warm and embracing and at that moment when the two of them are in mourning he says perhaps we can get back together again and eleanor doesnt want to. I have an independent life now and im going to keep that independent life now. But there is that one moment of our roosevelt didnt want to be the housewife. She was writing a daily column and had a radio show. Shes out there ou