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A review by elizzabethanne
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt by Eleanor Roosevelt
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
I feel that for every statement Eleanor made that I agreed with wholeheartedly there would be another that would give me pause. However, that is what reading autobiographies or biographies from historical figures is all about in my opinion. What I found the most fascinating is how Eleanor Roosevelt’s ideologies changed over time due to her exposure to some of the best and the worst the world has to offer. While some of her opinions are dated, others are still startlingly relevant. Ultimately, this work helped to fill in some of the gaps in my education around this time in history and I am eager to go down further rabbit holes to better understand the state of the world as it is now.
“Perhaps the older generation is often to blame with its cautious warning: “Take a job that will give you security, not adventure.” But I say to the young: “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.”
“It is, I am afraid, true that frequently various religious groups endeavor to exert pressures and control over different legislative and educational fields. It is the job of all of us to be alert for such infringement of our prerogatives and prevent any such attempts from being successful. Like all our freedoms, this freedom from religious-group pressure must be constantly defended. What seemed to me most deplorable”
“Sometimes, even now, I am still taken aback to discover how closely one’s most trivial movements are followed in this day of television. It seems as though one can find privacy only within the silence of one’s own mind.”
“I learned, too, while I was groping for more and more effective ways of trying to cope with community and national and world problems, that you can accomplish a great deal more if you care deeply about what is happening to other people than if you say in apathy or discouragement, “Oh, what can I do? What use is one person? I might as well not bother.” Actually I suppose the caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person. If you cannot imagine, “This might happen to me,” you are able to say to yourself with indifference, “Who cares?” I think that one of the reasons it is so difficult for us, as a people, to understand other areas of the world is that we cannot put ourselves imaginatively in their place.”
“Perhaps the older generation is often to blame with its cautious warning: “Take a job that will give you security, not adventure.” But I say to the young: “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.”
“It is, I am afraid, true that frequently various religious groups endeavor to exert pressures and control over different legislative and educational fields. It is the job of all of us to be alert for such infringement of our prerogatives and prevent any such attempts from being successful. Like all our freedoms, this freedom from religious-group pressure must be constantly defended. What seemed to me most deplorable”
“Sometimes, even now, I am still taken aback to discover how closely one’s most trivial movements are followed in this day of television. It seems as though one can find privacy only within the silence of one’s own mind.”
“I learned, too, while I was groping for more and more effective ways of trying to cope with community and national and world problems, that you can accomplish a great deal more if you care deeply about what is happening to other people than if you say in apathy or discouragement, “Oh, what can I do? What use is one person? I might as well not bother.” Actually I suppose the caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person. If you cannot imagine, “This might happen to me,” you are able to say to yourself with indifference, “Who cares?” I think that one of the reasons it is so difficult for us, as a people, to understand other areas of the world is that we cannot put ourselves imaginatively in their place.”
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic