First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with a young girl, 1935
FDR brings the same optimism and energy to the White House that his cousin Theodore displayed. Aimed at ending the Depression, his sweeping New Deal restores the people’s self-confidence and transforms the relationship between them and their government. Eleanor rejects the traditional role of first lady, becomes her husband’s liberal conscience and a sometimes controversial political force in her own right. As the decade ends, FDR faces two grave questions: whether to run for an unprecedented third term and how to deal with the rise of Hitler.
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History – The Rising Road (1933 -1939), Tuesday at 8 p.m. on PBS 6.
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