Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer: The Religious Life of the First Lady of the World

The groundbreaking legacy of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt owes much to her deep Episcopalian faith, according to this thorough biography from Mitchell (Tread the City’s Streets Again), a professor of religion at Berkeley College in New York City. Arguing that many of his subject’s deepest convictions were “grounded in the teaching of Jesus” and that previous biographers have glossed over this fact, he highlights Roosevelt’s acute awareness of others’ suffering (she grew up near the impoverished Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan and was taught to be generous to the poor without judgment); her ability to “focus her attention and channel her energy” (borne partly of routinely memorizing Bible passages as a child); and her commitment to racial justice, even when her actions contradicted her husband’s. Mitchell makes a convincing case that Roosevelt’s moral compass was formed by her personal spirituality, the communal element of church life, and biblical narratives that subconsciously informed the way she perceived the world. It adds up to a fresh take on the influences that formed a key figure in 20th-century American history. (Nov.)