Curtis Roosevelt: Too Close to the Sun 

My family came to New Amsterdam as well only in 1650. My great grandfather who came over was involved in politics in both the Dutch AND English (after the accord) government's. He knew Peter Stuyvesant. We were very much in the same social class as the Roosevelts. I love to listen to Curtis Roosevelt's lectures because so much of what he describes reminds me of my late grandmother. She used the word "uppity" too! Like the Roosevelts, I, too, was raised to "know my place." And I must confess, especially in THIS day and age, the fact that others do not know THEIRS has caused trouble for me in the past. My grandmother was a very proper Edwardian lady but had Victorian traits picked up from my great grandparents no doubt. She was such an influence on my life that I, too, have been described as a "Victorian. "

FDR.

Eleanor... FDRs mother wanted him to stay home after his polio .. Eleanor pushed him into politics Again.. without Eleanor.. there would have been no president FDR...

@@jmart4197 Eleanor pushed Franklin back into the political fray because on a few years before, she was strongly considering divorce and probably would've followed through had FDR not stayed in politics. It was FDR, however, who brought in a host of the Alphabet Agencies, some of which are still in use today, Social Security, FHA, FDIC among several others. His efforts lifted the country from the depths of the Great Depression. Eleanor hadn't wanted to become First Lady as she was director and teacher at the Todhunter School and was traveling back and forth from Washington DC to New York City when school was in session. Eleanor was indeed important but it was her husband who was pushing legislation that we still benefit greatly from even today.

@@travelseatsyellowlab Actually you are wrong on most of the points you mention. It was FDR and NOT Eleanor who asked for the divorce so he could marry Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer with whom he fell in love. Eleanor was going to grant it but FDR's mother told him if he divorced Eleanor, she would cut him off financially including his trust fund set up by his father but which SHE controlled. Divorce was something the Delano's and the Roosevelt's simply 'did not do.' Eleanor agreed to stay together but only if FDR agreed to never see Lucy again. A promise he kept until the 1940's when Lucy's husband died and their daughter Anna used to sneak Lucy into the White House when Eleanor was away. It was more Louis Howe that pushed FDR back into politics than Eleanor. Eleanor partnered with him to convince FDR but Eleanor would have been just as content if FDR did something else with his life. She WAS opposed to him simply retiring to Hyde Park to live, as FDR's mother put it, the 'life of a country squire' which basically means he would do nothing. As for the alphabet agencies, Eleanor was a driving force behind some of those programs. FDR originally did not plan to go as far as he did, but Eleanor kept pushing him. That is where the famous 'memo basket' comes into play. Eleanor would put memo's in this basket by FDR's bed and every night he would read them. They got to be so many in number FDR had to limit them. Eleanor, it has often been said, was a 'conscience' for FDR which is what Curtis meant when he talked about the "hair shirt." Were it not for Eleanor pushing, we wouldn't have some of those programs and if we did, they wouldn't be as beneficial as they are as far as what they do and give. You ARE right about her not wanting to be first lady though. But she said herself as much as she hated it, she did it for FDR as she felt it would make up for the blow that Polio had dealt him. Eleanor was an amazing person. Made fun of by her mother for her looks, a loner as a child, abused by her uncles when her parents died and she went to live with her grandmother, suffered from depression, etc. And she took all those experiences and turned it into a lifetime of service to help others who were suffering in one way or another.

@@retroguy9494 when Eleanor discovered what was happening between her husband and Lucy Mercer, she actually DID threaten to divorce Franklin, she offered him his freedom. This is confirmed by Eleanor's own aunt on the Roosevelt side of her family. Franklin was more than willing to oblige. That's when Sara Roosevelt intervened by threatening to cut off Franklin. The vernacular of it all is somewhat trivial because in any case, Eleanor was more than willing to allow the divorce to go through. It wasn't the first time she threatened to leave as he'd flaked on plans usually kept by the family to travel to Campobello every summer, until he became too preoccupied with Mercer to keep things straight. Eleanor was not the complete doormat that some try to make her out to be. She agreed to remain married on the condition that Franklin dropped Lucy. There were a couple of other terms laid out by Eleanor but the Lucy issue was the biggest. Without Eleanor, there really was no Louis Howe. He HAD to have Eleanor's buy-in to keep making public appearances on his behalf when he was felled by the polio attack. It was Louis who had to woo her. Eleanor was doing the heavy lifting of running the household and attending to Franklin's needs when he was bedridden. None of the other figures would've had the role they did in Franklin's career, not without Eleanor's backing. She could've just as easily divorced him and it would've almost certainly torpedoed any chance he would've had of getting anywhere near the White House. Really it was a key reason he married her was because he couldn't have Alice Roosevelt, so settled for the next best thing in his eyes, Ted's niece. Also, Franklin didn't exactly keep his promise. After Lucy's husband died is when they reignited the flame but they had kept in touch during the intervening years, albeit sporadically, such as when he invited her to the 1933 inauguration. Eleanor did play a key role in the depth of some of the alphabet agencies, true. As far as being an amazing person is concerned, that's debatable. She was a marginal parent, at best, and did not have a great relationship with the Roosevelt children, though she largely made it up to her grandchildren. She was an absentee mom who delegated her responsibilities to others, allowing her mother-in-law a greater position in family life than she deserved. On the other hand, President Truman called her "First Lady of the World," and chided Eisenhower for not allowing her a role in his administration. Even her namesake niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, believed that the charitable acts by her aunt Eleanor was to close the gap from such a poor childhood and horrors that repeatedly surfaced in the family.