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Title details for Hissing Cousins by Marc Peyser - Available

Hissing Cousins

The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth

by Marc Peyser
Timothy Dwyer
Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
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2 of 3 copies available
A lively and provocative double biography of first cousins Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, two extraordinary women whose tangled lives provide a sweeping look at the twentieth century.
When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, his beautiful and flamboyant daughter was transformed into "Princess Alice," arguably the century's first global celebrity. Thirty-two years later, her first cousin Eleanor moved into the White House as First Lady. Born eight months and twenty blocks apart from each other in New York City, Eleanor and Alice spent a large part of their childhoods together and were far more alike than most historians acknowledge.
But their politics and temperaments couldn't have been more distinct. Do-gooder Eleanor was committed to social justice but hated the limelight; acid-tongued Alice, who became the wife of philandering Republican congressman Nicholas Longworth, was an opponent of big government who gained notoriety for her cutting remarks (she famously quipped that dour President Coolidge “looked like he was weaned on a pickle”). While Eleanor revolutionized the role of First Lady with her outspoken passion for human rights, Alice made the most of her insider connections to influence politics, including doing as much to defeat the League of Nations as anyone in elective office.
The cousins themselves liked to play up their oil-and-water relationship. “When I think of Frank and Eleanor in the White House I could grind my teeth to powder and blow them out my nose,” Alice once said. In the 1930s they even wrote opposing syndicated newspaper columns and embarked on competing nationwide speaking tours. Blood may be thicker than water, but when the family business is politics, winning trumps everything.
Vivid, intimate, and stylishly written, Hissing Cousins finally sets this relationship center stage, revealing the contentious bond between two political trailblazers who short-circuited the rules of gender and power, each in her own way.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    March 31, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781101913956
      • File size: 403224 KB
      • Duration: 14:00:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Suzanne Toren's fine rendition of this engaging biography of two equally famous but vastly different women is one of the unqualified pleasures among this spring's listening delights. Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer have done an exemplary job of reconstructing a neglected subplot in the Roosevelt family saga, and Toren brings charm, vigor, and a congenial lilt to a narrative that isn't nearly as biting or contentious as the title may imply--though, it turns out, is biting and contentious enough. Here we trace the true political legacy of Teddy Roosevelt as his daughter Alice and niece Eleanor assume very different roles on the Washington stage. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 16, 2015
      Journalist Peyser and educator Dwyer serve up a dual biography of the two most well-known women of the extended Roosevelt clan with a glaze of snark. Alice, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, is portrayed as sarcastic and spoiled; Eleanor, wife of Franklin Roosevelt, as unattractive and awkward. The women were close as children but grew apart as adults, due to their very different personalities and very different politics. The authors assert that the disagreements between Alice and Eleanor reflect the great American debates of the 20th Century: internationalism vs. isolationism, war vs. peace, large federal government vs. small. Alice married Ohio Republican congressman Nicholas Longworth in 1906 as much for his wealth as his political reputation, believing she could help him to the White House. Eleanor’s political life didn’t begin until after her 1905 marriage to Franklin; as a dutiful wife she figured out effective ways to support and promote his career. The authors ably present these events, but are on shakier ground with the gender issues that informed these great American debates and shaped these women’s lives. Readers interested in a more historically substantive portrayal of the two women should look to the work of Blanche Wiesen Cook and Stacy Cordery.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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