Book 2: Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage

I read through NPR's book page every couple of weeks, scanning for things that sound interesting (I rarely get to actually listen to NPR these days, other than podcasts while I'm walking the dog), and I found Hazel Rowley's Franklin and Eleanor there awhile back and put it on my Amazon wishlist. The kids, with Dave's help, bought it for me for Christmas. I enjoyed reading the book, and I learned a lot I hadn't known before...but this was true in spite of my not finding Rowley's thesis especially compelling. Rowley argues that the Roosevelt's marriage was, essentially, an open one, with more than one outside romance on both sides, and that this was a mutually agreed upon and beneficial arrangement. It's not so much that I doubt this is true as that I'm not sure how extraordinary I find it. I wouldn't be surprised if such arrangements were actually relatively common in wealthy families at the time, when divorce was not a socially acceptable option. I guess there's really no doubt about and nothing new in saying that both FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt had romantic relationships outside of their marriage, though...I take it the innovative part of Rowley's argument is that she claims this was, or at least became, a satisfactory arrangement for both of them, that they both loved and respected each other even as they looked outside of the marriage for romance. The open relationship wasn't just a way to preserve a loveless marriage and save face; it was the result of an enlightened, progressive view of gender relations and marriage. This is a harder case to make, and I'm not sure if Rowley succeeds or not. I think it's certainly possible, perhaps even likely, but so much speculation is necessary to try to ascertain FDR and Eleanor's true feelings about each other and their various companions through the years, that it's hard to come to any firm conclusions, and Rowley is careful not to push her assertions farther than the evidence will bear (sadly for the reader, most of the letters that might have revealed the really fun details were destroyed long ago by the parties involved).

The most interesting parts of the book for me, someone relatively unschooled in Roosevelt history, tended to be only tangentially related to the Eleanor/Franklin relationship. I'm always fascinated to hear how different American politics was in the past. I had, of course, read before that FDR was careful to avoid having his picture taken in a wheelchair, and that the press was complicit in this sort of cover-up be omission, but it was really interesting to hear details about just it was orchestrated and how far it went. I'd never heard before about FDR's attempts to get a constitutional amendment allowing him to appoint extra Supreme Court justices (and it's difficult to imagine any president today being bold enough to suggest such a thing, much less being surprised and angered by resistance to the idea). One review I read said that FDR comes off looking like a narcissist in the book, while the reader's sympathies lie with Eleanor, but I didn't find this to be true at all. I was at least little annoyed with both of them in places. Ultimately, Franklin and Eleanor drew me in enough that I'd like to read more (and different) takes on the Roosevelts, and I guess that's a pretty good sign of success for a book about history.