Author Topic: Life of Frances Perkins,The ~ Kirstin Downey - August Book Club Online (Read 98035 times)

EvelynMC · « **Reply #40 on:** July 13, 2009, 04:53:30 PM »

The Woman Behind the New Deal:
   The Life of Frances Perkins,
   FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience
   by Kirstin Downey

Links:
Frances Perkins Center
Frances Perkins, Dept. of Labor
Jane Addams
[Frances Perkins Speech

Discussion
August l - 8
August 9 - 15
August 16 - 22
August 23 - 31

Schedule
Chapters 1-9
Chapters 10-18
Chapters 19-27
Chapters 28-38

FOR CONSIDERATION

Had you ever heard of Frances Perkins before? Why do you think she has been forgotten by history?

Is there anything in her early life that predicted the course her future would take?

How did the era in which she grew up impact her life?

What is it about Chicago that has seeded many of our VIP’s in government? (ex. Jane Adams, Frances Perkins, Barack Obama)

How did her stint as a volunteer distributing food baskets and milk to children at Hull House lead to her life altering career?

Her ideas were often shocking and way ahead of her time. What impressed you?

The plight of poor immigrants moved Perkins throughout her life. What are some of the first evidences of this in the book and how do you feel that they compare with the problem of immigration today?

Had you ever heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire before? What did Perkins mean when she “recognized that tragedies could be turned into positive events?” Does that statement resonate with one from Rahm Emanuel who said “ Never let a crises go to waste”

Perkins believed that it was important to her career and her goals to network with wealthy and important people and she made a great effort to do this. What is your opinion?

Perkins' "Notes on the Male Mind" (pg.45) may seem amusing to us; however, are any of them applicable?

______________________________
Discussion Leaders: Ella and Harold

I got my book and will start reading it soon. Our library didn't have it, and although I could have requested it, by the time they got it and put it on the shelf, our discussion would be over. So I just bought it. It looks like it is going to be an interesting read.

Evelyn

Barb Burt · « **Reply #41 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:03:04 AM »

Greetings! I'm Barbara Burt, executive director of the Frances Perkins Center at the Perkins homestead in Newcastle, Maine. We're a nonprofit formed in 2009 to honor the accomplishments of Frances Perkins--the first female Cabinet member, FDR's secretary of Labor, and principal author of the New Deal--and to carry on her commitment to the rights and needs of working people around the world.

Maine Public Television recently did an excellent segment about Frances Perkins and the Center on their program "Maine Watch." It features Kirstin Downey, and I thought you might enjoy watching it (the segment on Frances Perkins starts about 11 minutes into the program): http://www.mpbn.net/Television/LocalTelevisionPrograms/MaineWatch/tabid/477/ctl/ViewItem/mid/2547/ItemId/11251/Default.aspx

There was also an excellent article last April in the Maine Sunday Telegram: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=250364&ac=PHnws

And Maine Public Radio did a feature for their program, "Maine Things Considered": http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/1858/ItemId/9844/Default.aspx

Finally, don't forget to visit our web site, http://www.FrancesPerkinsCenter.org.

I look forward to following the discussion!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #42 on:** July 20, 2009, 01:51:15 PM »

Thank you for all that info, Barbara. So glad to hear that there is a site that teaches her history. I'm looking forward to viewing your links.............jean

JoanK · « **Reply #43 on:** July 20, 2009, 09:15:44 PM »

BARB BURT: WELCOME!

This will be a tremendous discussion --- I can't possibly miss it. I'm also involved in leading part of the People of the Book discussion in August, but will be in here as much as I can.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #44 on:** July 20, 2009, 10:26:28 PM »

I put the book on my Kindle and hope to read it soon.
I am a avid FDR and Eleanor fan.
Ella there is a gift shop in the entrance building at the
Little White House and has many books on both Roosevelts.
We were at the FDR park last Oct. where they had put up a
new statue of FDR sitting down and his leg braces showing.
Many people have visited to see it.He had his dinner up there
when ever possible (white table cloth silver and all the trimings
while the secret service stood up on the road. Some people who
live there think that is where he really died. A man in Hamilton told
me a long story about it.

JoanK · « **Reply #45 on:** July 21, 2009, 02:10:06 PM »

I get my impressions of Hyde Park from the mystery story written by Eliot Roosevelt with his mother, Eleanor, as the detective."Murder at Hyde Park". I heartily recommend it. As literature, it isn't, but it's worth the price of admission for the picture of the dignified Eleanor crawling through the woods looking for a murderer. And for the comments about FDR's mother.

It's one (the best) of a series, well worth reading for Eliots impressions of his parents (I'm not sure that the family was speaking to him after some of the books).

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #46 on:** July 21, 2009, 05:26:40 PM »

BARBARA! HOW GREAT YOU REGISTERED AND ARE POSTING!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING, WELCOME!!!

As we told you in our email, our discussion will start August 1st and we will be dividing the book into four-week segments. There is so much to cover, so much history and we all look forward to it with great anticipation.

FDR was my president, WWII was my war, my family did not make it through the depression intact as a family; it was very sad.

BUT, AND THIS IS A BIGGIE! THIS DISCUSSION IS NOT CENTERED ON FDR, BUT ON HIS SECRETARY OF LABOR!!!

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL!!! AND WHAT A ROLE MODEL FOR WOMEN WHO HAVE POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS!

This is going to be just great. KIRSTIN WILL BE HERE ALSO!!

THANKS AGAIN, BARBARA!

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #47 on:** July 21, 2009, 08:49:09 PM »

Barbara, I feel as if I know you now after meeting you online in the video of the Perkins Center. Please ask Thomlin and Chris if they would like to join us in our discussion; here they can meet a cross section of America as we discuss past and present problems of labor.

FP (Frances Perkins) was an excellent speaker but she had nerve to say something sarcastic to Jimmy Hoffa's lawyer in his presence! And I would love to know what she is whispering in FDR's ear; obviously something that is making him laugh. As Chris said, the two of them were ahead of their time and were therefore linked via programs that are beneficial to all of us today.

Thanks for the links, I enjoyed them.

Today's Secretary of Labor appointed by President Obama:

http://www.dol.gov/_sec/welcome.htm

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #48 on:** July 22, 2009, 10:04:44 AM »

"This precious child" - Social Security by Frances Perkins

I was so intrigued, BARBARA, by the clear voice of Frances in the audio here:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=250364&ac=PHnws

Her voice is distinctive and the picture of she with Eleanor is most unusual! Eleanor looks so tall! And so forbidding and we know she wasn't at all. And throughout her speeches and photographs Frances seems so humorless and we also know she wasn't. I am going to put that clip of her speech in the heading.

JoanK · « **Reply #49 on:** July 22, 2009, 02:52:39 PM »

There is nothing like hearing her actual voice to make her come alive. Thank you.

EvelynMC · « **Reply #50 on:** July 22, 2009, 05:11:13 PM »

Ella: Thank you for that clip. I enjoyed hearing her voice.

Barbara Burt: Thanks for all those links. I am going to go back and view them.

Evelyn

Jonathan · « **Reply #51 on:** July 23, 2009, 12:09:26 PM »

There are fifteen of us who have signed on to talk about the book. That should make for an interesting exchange of opinions and points of view. I had the privilege a few weeks ago of following the progress of my wife as she was reading this life of Frances Perkins. I've never known her to be so eager to comment on something she was reading. A great story she assured me.

There's little danger, it seems to me, that Frances will be upstaged by anyone, including FDR himself. I've taken a peek, and already on page one it's Frances who shows up with her agenda for an interview with the president-elect, proposing a 'fundamental and radical restructuring of American society.' On this occasion it seems FDR was left speechless.

How interesting to hear about Eliot Roosevelt revealing family secrets in his novels. Perhaps it's like Philip Roth once said:

"When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished."

JoanK · « **Reply #52 on:** July 23, 2009, 04:59:45 PM »

JONATHAN: not family secrets, exactly. I was thinking of the scene in one of Elliot's books where Franklin wakes up in bed with his secretary. Eleanor wanders in from another room, and the three of them calmly discuss the day's agenda, with F and secretary still in bed.

It's known that FDR had an affair with his secretary, but I doubt if any of them were that casual about it.

Jonathan · « **Reply #53 on:** July 23, 2009, 05:35:48 PM »

What an amazing bedroom scene. A wonderful example of upper class aplomb and imperturbability in a difficult situation. And, of course, observing the rule of not arguing in the presence of a servant. One has to wonder, though, how they all made it through the 'planned' day.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #54 on:** July 24, 2009, 11:31:03 AM »

Thank you Kirstin Downey and Barb Burt for your presence here. We appreciate your very special contribution to the discussion. Barb I just listened to your the Maine Public Radio link. Thank you for this contribution.

An to all participants our start is just 8 days away. Ella and I hope all of you will be active in posting your comments about the book including opinion and questions. We hope to see all of you here just one week from tomorrow.

Harold

JoanK · « **Reply #55 on:** July 24, 2009, 08:58:34 PM »

I got my book!! For once Amazon was a lot quicker than they promised. Since I ordered something else too, I qualified for the free shipping which is slower, and I was afraid it wouldn't come til the last minute.

Now PatH tells me: "read the first chapter. You'll be hooked!"

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #56 on:** July 25, 2009, 11:44:22 AM »

HELLO TO ALL! All 15 of us as JONATHAN posted.

I am so eager to start the discussion, and you will be hooked, JOAN, once you start. Kirstin writes so well.

But WAIT, we will post our Reading Schedule today or tomorrow. Please, don't be ahead of the crowd as you may not remember it all once we start the conversation!!

Eliot Roosevelt wrote mysteries? I never knew that! The only facet of the FDR sons I ever knew was the one (was it James?) who so fervently wrote to all recipients of SS for some years; I believe he was the Chairman of a Committe to Save the "precious child" that Frances talked of so eloquently. Over the years, I am sure the trust fund has been eroded and challenged but somehow social security survives. For how long is a matter of conjecture.

On BookTV not long ago I heard a statement by some author whose name has been forgotten but not his ideas. He stated that FDR's presidency changed government - his programs and policies upheld the idea that government should take care of people. Previously people muddled through on their own.

However, our discussion will flesh out those ideas in a surprising way.

JoanK · « **Reply #57 on:** July 25, 2009, 02:33:58 PM »

ELLA: " He stated that FDR's presidency changed government - his programs and policies upheld the idea that government should take care of people. Previously people muddled through on their own".

Not just this author, but many have noted this. Of course, these ideas were not FDR's (or Perkins'), but were "in the air" at the time, made more urgent by the great depression. Some give Roosevelt credit for helping to pulling the country out of the depression; others arguie that nothing really helped until WWII brought a flood of war spending. In either case, it's hard to imagine now an industrialized country without some measure of "taking care of people".

Jonathan · « **Reply #58 on:** July 25, 2009, 05:54:44 PM »

'... the "precious child" that Frances talked of so eloquently.'

So there was a baby after all. The labor wasn't in vain. And Frances should be allowed her maternal pride. I hope she gets all the honor due to her, in this biography.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #59 on:** July 25, 2009, 06:21:47 PM »

Yes, she will, JONATHAN, just ask your wife who has finished the book.

Hi JOAN, I've heard those remarks also. Will there ever be a definitive answer on this subject?

I can recall stories from my grandmother and others of people muddling through with no SS or any government help whatsoever. Times are better for all, as you noted.

Another opinion on BookTV and, as we are not talking about the book yet, I think I can quote another author who said that FDR's presidency changed America forever from an isolationist goverment to one with a world-view and we can never return to what was a more innocent time.

Jonathan · « **Reply #60 on:** July 26, 2009, 08:40:18 PM »

'...FDR's presidency changed America forever from an isolationist goverment to one with a world-view...'

Ella, I wonder that no one has challenged you on that statement. Granted that America came out of WWII as a superpower, and willing to assume the responsibility of getting the world back on its feet (I'm just reading a bio of Lucius Clay who did such an amazing job as military governor of Germany, and, of course there was MacArthur in Japan).

As for getting America to take a world view, I think Wilson with his Fourteen Points and his fight for a League of Nations, deserves more credit than FDR.

Furthermore, I believe America was never really isolationist, and never, ever innocent. Let's start with the 1812-14 invasion of Canada. Canadians like to think they won that one, but it was the U.S. that lost the battles but won the war, in the sense that they came out of it a united nation. A big factor in the Union that Lincoln was determined to preserve. A decade or two later it was the Mexicans who felt the American expansionist surge. Mid-nineteenth century saw American gunboats on the Yangtze, and American warships in Japan's inland seas. In the 1890s America took the Phillipines from Spain, and thereby hangs a tale:

Victory over Spain came in 1892. A NY reporter looking for a story found himself in the Lower East Side of town on a very Jewish street, and was impressed, as well as puzzled, by the dancing and singing in the streets...a huge celebration. Looking for answers he went into a delicatessen, saw an elderly Jew sitting alone at a table, lost in thought. Of course they're celebrating, the rabbi told the reporter. After four hundred years, God remembers. In 1492, Spain exiled the Jews.

Perhaps all along America has been doing the work of the Lord.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #61 on:** July 27, 2009, 08:36:47 AM »

Thanks, JONATHAN, for your views! As always I am impressed by your knowledge of US history; I don't know a thing about Lucius Clay and would like to learn. Most of us have heard of McArthur's heroic administration of Japan after WWII, although I have never read a book about that either.

FDR or Wilson? But Wilson wasn't very successful with his campaign for the League of Nations. My memory is not all that great but what I remember is that the United States would not join because of fear that we would be drawn into European alliances and wars, etc. In other words, we still preferred to go it alone, so to speak.

Am I right or wrong? We must read and discuss a book about WWI and Wilson one of these days.

FDR was spectacularly successful, not only in the war effort, but in his diplomatic efforts at joining America with other nations.

FDR, as you will see when we read the book, did not allow as many Jews to immigrate to the USA from Germany and other war-torn countries as some of his advisors believed possible. There were many reasons, all of which we will discuss.

We are going to have fun here, aren't we? History is not only interesting, but debatable. It's not a dead subject but is open to all interpretations.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #62 on:** July 27, 2009, 08:52:47 AM »

JONATHAN, we discussed the book, PARIS 1919, in 2004. I don't have time at the moment to skim through it; were you a participant?

We must get Harold in here who possibly has a better memory than I do as to the Wilson era and the 14 Points of Light.

http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/Paris1919.html

JoanK · « **Reply #63 on:** July 27, 2009, 09:14:27 PM »

ELLA: "FDR, as you will see when we read the book, did not allow as many Jews to immigrate to the USA from Germany and other war-torn countries as some of his advisors believed possible. There were many reasons, all of which we will discuss".

I remember Doris Kearns Goodwin's discussion of that point in "No Ordinary Time". It will be interesting to compare the two. In general, it's interesting to see how different historians, perhaps with access to different sources or different points of view, can see historical events differently.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #64 on:** July 27, 2009, 09:31:22 PM »

Yes, it is, JOAN. I don't have the Goodwin book so put a marker in those pages that tell about the immigration restrictions during WWII, okay?

I just looked up the Department of Labor building and this shot shows Frances Perkins name on the front of the building; you may have to zoom in on it but wouldn't she be proud? Wouldn't anyone?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/US_Dept_of_Labor.jpg

What always amazed is the FBI building named after J. Edgar Hoover. Do you think he deserved it?

serenesheila · « **Reply #65 on:** July 28, 2009, 03:20:03 PM »

I just read the first three chapters of our book. I am hooked! I am so glad that we will begin our discussion in just a few days.

Well, I finally finished reading "Savage Peace". It was one of the best books I have ever read! The author is Ann Hagedorn. I learned so much about the period following the first world war. I am shocked about a number of things about what Wilson did, and didn't do. Wilson was totally unwilling to take any federal action concerning the high rate of lynching of African Americans. I was stunned to learn about the number of Black Americans who served in combat in Europe who were beaten, and lynched when they returned home. Anarchists, and blacks were the target of the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover, led raids against both, during 1919, and the early 1920s. A man named Palmer was the head of the bureau. He resigned to run for President in the early 1920s. J. Edgar was named to run the beaureau. He was only 26 years old, at that time. I highly reccomend this book.

Sheila

Jonathan · « **Reply #66 on:** July 28, 2009, 10:09:18 PM »

With JOAN'S post in mind:

I wonder what advice FDR was getting from his Secretary of Labour, regarding immigration policy. The Bureau of Immigration, was after all a part of FP's department.

When I first learned that immigration was the concern of the Sec of Labor, I couldn't see the connection. It seems the fact that most immigrants were working class was the reason for finding a home for the Bureau of Immigration within the Dept. of Labor. My source (REDS: McCarthyism in 20C America, by Ted Morgan) also points out that the Secretary was the ultimate authority in all deportation proceedings involving troublesome immigrants. Anarchists, Bolsheviks, union organizers, etc.

SAVAGE PEACE sounds interesting. It's disturbing to hear about Wilson's unwillingness to address the sorry lynching issue. FDR, too, I believe, steered clear of it. Did they have constitutional reasons? Was there no federal offence in these dastardly acts?

Is it any wonder that there is still a lot of anger among African Americans? And hasn't the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. affair brought it to the fore? The latest is that Prof Gates is going to make a documentary out of it. A learning experience, as he puts it. I wonder if President Obama will play himself.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #67 on:** July 29, 2009, 11:55:33 AM »

Jonathan in Messaged #60 made a pretty good case supporting the view that the U.S. was never really as isolationist as our history has pictured it. He might also have added the Theodore Roosevelt administration with the sending the Fleet to show the flag around the world and his taking on a U.S. role in the negotiations ending the Russian-Japanese war. I think though it was a relatively small element of the U.S. population with a vision range extending beyond the borders. This was certainly the case throughout the South and West and even the mid-west which remained strongly isolationist through the 1930’s’

I started to become aware of current world events when I was about 9 years old. My family had just moved back to San Antonio after 4 years in Houston where I started school. My first remembered major world new story was the death of England’s King George V and the succession crisis that followed. I was in the high 4th grade where we listened to extensive radio coverage. Then in 1937, 38, and 39 there was the Chrissies involving German territorial demands on Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland that led to the beginning of WW II.

In the summer of 1940 my family made an automobile trip to Washington, D.C. By then I had my own short wave radio and was listening the BBC and Berlin radio for details of the German Blitz in France and the Dunkirk Evacuation of the British army. In Washington, I met our Congressman, Paul Kilday, and sat in a seat in the Senate Gallery watching a floor debate on the first peace time draft bill. By that time I was quite prepared for the Role that the U.S. took in WW II, the peace and the cold War that followed as well as the governmental and social changes in the U.S that followed through the last half of the 20th century.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #68 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:10:47 AM »

THANKS, SHEILA for the book recommendation. I'm making a list here. JONATHAN, recommended a book about Lucius Clay.

Much to speculate about here, but FIRST AND FOREMOST, our book WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL, the discussion!

BEGINS SATURDAY - THIS SATURDAY!

We are putting a few questions about the first week's recommended reading in the heading today. These are just for consideration as you start the book and to facilitate the conversation.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!!

YEAH!! TO BEGIN THE BEGUINE (did I spell that correctly?)

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #69 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:24:33 AM »

FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE:

CURTAIN #1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYHXTJxoZqo&feature=related

CURTAIN #2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDdIxGzv4fQ

JoanK · « **Reply #70 on:** July 30, 2009, 02:26:02 PM »

As much as I like classical music and opera singing, the classical performance didn't GET IT! The second was much better.

Or even Artie Shaw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAOFtrmSkQ&feature=related

bellamarie · « **Reply #71 on:** July 31, 2009, 05:28:10 PM »

WOW! I have read all your posts and am impressed with all of your knowledge about history. I feel like this is going to be way above my head, although I am not known to back down from a good challenge of learning new things. I came so close to failing History in high school my teacher told me he would give me just enough of a passing grade so he would not have to see me the following year. So...let the discussion begin. I have read the first few chapters and already am amazed at the spunk of Frances Perkins. She was a lady way ahead of her times.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #72 on:** July 31, 2009, 11:44:30 PM »

I do remember Frances Perkins as Roosevelt’s Secretary of labor ages back when I was a kid from the time I first entered elementary school in Houston TX in February 1933 through my graduation from Brackenridge High School in May 1944 to enter the Navy. Yet I have absolutely no recollection any news events in which her name was mentioned though I now realize there were many. But I was surprised when her name came up on our nonfiction discussion board as the subject of Kirstin Downey’s new Perkins biography. We had been considering offering a discussion of one of several biographies of Theodore Roosevelt or one of Andrew Jackson. I was surprised again when opinion seemed to jell around the Perkins book, but when Ella announced she would offer it and asked me to join her, I did not hesitate a moment. Ella and I have collaborated in many nonfiction discussions; it must have been at least a dozen going tack to about 1999. Many of these were biographies.

When I got the book and had read it for the first time I had come to realize that I had indeed overlooked an impressive American who had been a real force in molding my country into the entity that it had become in the last half of the 20th century. Thank you Ella for choosing this book, and initiating this discussion. And thank you Kirstin Downey for writing it. This discussion has prospects of being one of the best our group has offered.

Let the discussion begin!

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #73 on:** August 01, 2009, 12:27:22 AM »

OH, THIS IS JUST GREAT! An early start on our book discussion!

BELLAMARIE and HAROLD, HELLO, GOOD MORNING!

This is such a good biography, so well written, as those of you who have started reading are well aware! Kirstin draws us into the life of Frances Perkins, who is described as being sturdy, plain and dependable. Even as a child!

And one has to wonder what that would to a young girl? And many of us will recall another famous lady from that same era who believed she, also, was plain and awkward. We will encounter her in later chapters!

I recognized the name of Frances Perkins. The name was vague, pushed back somewhere in my memory and I didn't know her as Secretary of Labor nor did I know of her many accomplishments.

Somehow she was in the news along with FDR.

SO, HOW MANY OF YOU RECOGNIZED THE NAME??

What interested you in reading of her life?

Our author, Kirstin Downey, and Barbara Burt, Executive Director of the Perkins Center in Maine, both have indicated they will be involved in some way with our discussion.

Also, Perkins' grandson, Tomlin, may participate.

What a pleasure to have them and you here!

HAROLD AND I ARE ENTHUSED ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE DISCUSSION. WE AWAIT YOUR COMMENTS!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #74 on:** August 01, 2009, 01:35:14 AM »

Marking a place - I am in awe at the collection of readers in this discussion.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #75 on:** August 01, 2009, 09:57:22 AM »

Regarding current name, recognition-- I have been asking many of the seniors living here at the Chandler Apartments the question, Who was Frances Perkins. In all I asked about 20 individuals most ranged in age from their early eighties to early nineties. I would say that most like my self recognized the name and most of these remembered she had been Roosevelt's Secretary of labor. Only a few, about 30% had no recognition of her.

This afternoon I will be working at the Indian Exhibit at the Institute of Texan Cultures. I will ask the question to visitors that will constitute a across section of all ages. I suspect the no recognition group will be larger.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #76 on:** August 01, 2009, 10:56:21 AM »

Interesting Harold; let us know the results of your poll.

Frances Perkins: Born 1880, died 1965

She grew up in the middle class of Yankee country; she had Yankee values. Her father had a stationery and office supply store. Do you remember, those of you who lived in small towns, stationery stores? Wonderful to wander through when I was young; we wrote letters, we loved pretty stationery.

Letters are such an important heritage and I'm not sure how future historians will put together the life and times of people living today. We write emails!

Or a person who has affected history will write their own biography such as President Clinton did and as President Bush is doing. They kept diaries??

Is it perhaps a common thread among ambitious women that they had a close relationship with their father and not to the women in their family? It was so with Frances.

And as KD tells us she grew up in a time when the country was changing rapidly which would affect Frances her whole life and give impetus to her career.

What are your thoughts?

Jonathan · « **Reply #77 on:** August 01, 2009, 12:41:29 PM »

It's nice to find the discussion underway. Tell us again, Ella, how you came upon this biography of a vaguely remembered Frances Perkins. Sure, I remember the name from my high school U.S. history class. In an N.B. sort of way, that FP was the first woman to hold a cabinet position. Quite an achievment. Since then, it seems to me, she is mentioned in every history or bio of the period, but only just in passing. That should change with this excellent biography, and the newly created Francis Perkins Center in the family homestead, the scene of FP's happy childhood.

I like Ella's characterization. She was 'sturdy, plain and dependable.' No doubt she was that to get as far as she did. But she sure had a lot of adventure along the way. Why, I wonder. did she turn her back on her comfortable middle-class upbringing to look for company among those in the upper class, and a personal satisfaction working among the poor and forgotten?

And what a whirlwind those early years,after college, trying to find herself. Try this, go there, move on.... A year of two in Chicago. Off to Philadelphia for about as long. Then it's off to New York. Within a few years she's ready to try marriage, only to try walking away from that after two years.

Through it all is her devotion to social work, and acquiring political smarts. At first, straight out of college, to help the poor in a dire, dysfunctional family situation, FP's solution would have been to call the police. A few years later, to help out a desperate family, FP enlists the help of the Tammany Hall boss.

Just watch her. She's going places.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #78 on:** August 01, 2009, 01:49:30 PM »

Life at Mount Holyoke

The most impressive thing for me in the early chapters was Frances's education at Mount Holyoke. The $250 per year that covered tuition and room and board, apparently for the school year (fall and spring terms) sounds unbelievable, Of course each girl had to do clean-up work for 50 minutes each day. I was also surprised that her major was chemistry and physics. The book does not mentioned any straight economics theory courses taken by her. Of course her favorite course was an American Economic History course that certainly gave her a basic dose of economic theory. In fact it was a fine very early first preparation for her role as a social worker and Labor Secretary.

Is Mount Holyoke still around today? If so I bet there it is quite different from Frances's day

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #79 on:** August 01, 2009, 01:53:39 PM »

Come on in all you gals and guys who are up for this discussion. Where are you? Come on in with your thoughts, comments, and questions. The discussion is under way, lets discuss!

News:

Author Topic: Life of Frances Perkins,The ~ Kirstin Downey - August Book Club Online (Read 98035 times)

Barb Burt