In 1943, during the grueling war with Japan, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt went on a five-week tour of the South Pacific that included Guadalcanal and other battle sites. Shannon McKenna Schmidt (Writers Between the Covers, with Joni Rendon) fully and captivatingly depicts the journey in The First Lady of World War II. Eleanor had already controversially broken the tradition of the quiet, demure First Lady in the first decade of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency by publicly supporting the New Deal, the war effort, and the struggles of Black people, poor people, and women. Now she was traveling by herself in the war theater.
In the beginning, it was a top-secret trip that was frowned upon by many military leaders. But Eleanor persisted, wanting most of all to show "our boys" that they were supported by the people back home. She made a point of visiting as many individual soldiers as she could, from the highest to the lowest ranks, particularly the wounded in hospital wards. She lifted morale with her compassion and energy and repeatedly won over those who disagreed politically with her or didn't think she should make such a trip. Australia and New Zealand, which sometimes felt neglected by their allies in the Northern Hemisphere, welcomed her like royalty. Although the trip was exhausting--she lost 30 pounds in five weeks--it was considered more than worth the many risks.
Relying on such sources as contemporary news reports and commentary, letters, reminiscences by soldiers, Eleanor's diary, and her regular newspaper column, "My Day," McKenna Schmidt puts the trip in context and provides a lively account of an often overlooked, inspiring journey. --John Mutter, editor-in-chief, Shelf Awareness