“Kirstin Downey’s lively, substantive and—dare I say—inspiring
new biography of Perkins . . . not only illuminates Perkins’ career
but also deepens the known contradictions of Roosevelt’s
character.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air
One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s closest friends and the first
female secretary of labor, Perkins capitalized on the president’s
political savvy and popularity to enact most of the Depression-era
programs that are today considered essential parts of the country’s
social safety network.
Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of
the most influential women of the twentieth century. Based on eight
years of research, extensive archival materials, new documents, and
exclusive access to Perkins’s family members and friends, this
biography is the first complete portrait of a devoted public
servant with a passionate personal life, a mother who changed the
landscape of American business and society.
Frances Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin
Roosevelt in 1933. As the first female cabinet secretary, she
spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of America’s working
people while juggling her own complex family responsibilities.
Perkins’s ideas became the cornerstones of the most important
social welfare and legislation in the nation’s history, including
unemployment compensation, child labor laws, and the forty-hour
work week.
Arriving in Washington at the height of the Great Depression,
Perkins pushed for massive public works projects that created
millions of jobs for unemployed workers. She breathed life back
into the nation’s labor movement, boosting living standards across
the country. As head of the Immigration Service, she fought to
bring European refugees to safety in the United States. Her
greatest triumph was creating Social Security.
Written with a wit that echoes Frances Perkins’s own,
award-winning journalist Kirstin Downey gives us a riveting
exploration of how and why Perkins slipped into historical
oblivion, and restores Perkins to her proper place in history.
關於作者：
Kirstin Downeyis a frequent contributor
to The Washington Post, where she was a staff writer from
1988 to 2008, winning press association awards for her business and
economic reporting. She shared in the 2008 Pulitzer Prize awarded
to the Post staff for its coverage of the Virginia Tech
shootings. In 2000, she was awarded a Nieman fellowship at Harvard
University. She lives in Washington, D.C.
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