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