Chapter Ten: The War Years Summary and Analysis

Franklin called Eleanor on the morning of September 2, 1939, to tell her that Germany had invaded Poland. Eleanor had never forgotten the images of Europe when she and Franklin visited after World War I. She hated war and now, with Franklin's news, it seemed as though America was on the brink of another brutal war. As the threat of Nazi oppression grew, she had appealed for worldwide disarmament through her lectures and columns. Although Eleanor was anti-war, she described herself as a "practical pacifist", recognizing that if conditions worsened American could not avoid war. Above all she believed in democracy and for the rights of people to choose their own form of government. Before America entered the war, Eleanor was an advocate for those seeking political asylum, although isolationists and conservatives defeated some of...