The Roosevelts

I received this video package for Christmas this year.  I so enjoyed it and was very sad when it ended.  It came with 7 DVDs and I looked forward every evening to sit down and watch.  Theodore was such an interesting man who felt so intensely about public service.  His hands were clenched, his teeth were clenched and talked and talked.  Eleanor was Theodore's niece, his brother Elliot's daughter.  Franklin was Theodore's 5th cousin and my he was handsome when he was younger.  His father was in his 50's and his mother in her late 20's when FDR was born.  All three had such strong personalities.  Theodore died at age 60 and Franklin at age 63.  Eleanor died in the early 1960's.  I became so engrossed in each characters that it was like I became part of the family.

Franklin helped the country through two crisis, the Great Depression and WWII.  I so wish that my parents were still alive so I could talk to them about Franklin and Eleanor because they lived through WWII and in fact my father enlisted in the war and did not finish high school because of that. 

All three had so much to overcome, Theodore overcame asthma, and his mother and wife dying on the same day.  Eleanor had her mother always telling her she was ugly and her father dying of alcoholism.  Franklin of course had the polio to overcome and always looking for the adoration and companionship from women, that Eleanor could not give him and he could not give her what she needed.  But it was good to understand that each wanted the others respect and that they did love each other.  Eleanor was a driven woman who did so much good for the country.  She always wanted people to know that she appreciated them and what could be done to help them.

Ken Burns, thank you again for another wonderful documentary.