Book Review: Eleanor in the Village

Eleanor in the Village

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Search for Freedom and Identity in New York’s Greenwich Village

by Jan Jarboe Russell

Scribner

Biographies & Memoirs

Pub Date 30 Mar 2021

I am reviewing a copy of Eleanor in the Village through Scribner and Netgalley:

There have been hundreds of books about FDR and Eleanor, both together and separately, but yet she remains a compelling and elusive figure. There is little known about why in 1920, Eleanor suddenly abandoned her duties as a mother of five and moved to Greenwich Village, then the symbol of all forms of transgressive freedom communism, homosexuality, interracial relationships, and subversive political activity. Now, in this fascinating, in-depth portrait, Jan Russell pulls back the curtain on Eleanor’s life to reveal the motivations and desires that drew her to the Village and how her time there changed her political outlook.

Eleanor in the Village is both an intriguing and captivating blend of personal history detailing Eleanor’s struggle with marriage, motherhood, and financial independence, and femininity, and a vibrant portrait of one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world, this unique work examines the ways that the sensibility, mood, and…