Book Review: The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt
c.2023, Sourcebooks $26.99 336 pages

You never were much of a homebody.

Not you, not when there were things to see, people to meet, places to go. If there was a get-together, you were there. A trail to explore, you grabbed your boots. Once upon a time, you’d go anywhere for an adventure even if, as in “The First Lady of World War II” by Shannon McKenna Schmidt, it took you straight into the mouth of danger.

Eleanor Roosevelt always loved to fly.

She first jumped aboard an airplane in 1929, and it was so much fun that she did it twice in the same day. When the fledgling airline industry needed a boost, Roosevelt let them use her name and photos to promote flying among women. She even became friends with Amelia Earhart, who offered to teach Roosevelt to fly but Roosevelt’s husband, the President, put a stop to those plans.
Roosevelt flew whenever she could and by the summer of 1943, says Schmidt, seeing her in a seat on a plane was no big deal. That was a good thing because in August of that year, Eleanor Roosevelt, with the President’s blessing, was planning an audacious, unthinkable-today mission to support the troops: quietly, secretly, she would head for the Pacific theater, near where the fighting was, to report on the war for America and for the Red Cross.

From Washington, she took a plane to San Francisco, ostensibly to attend a wedding. Wearing a Red Cross uniform in the belief that it might make her stand out less and seem more comforting, she boarded a converted bomber to visit soldiers in Honolulu, then she traveled to a series of small Pacific islands before visiting Bora Bora and American Samoa.

By then, the world knew that Roosevelt would go to New Zealand and Australia next.

What few knew, however, was that she wouldn’t quit until she’d gone to Guadalcanal, to the frontlines…

Wow.

There’s a lot to say about this book. That’s one of them.

Reading somewhat like a novel – which will make it more palatable for historical fiction fans – but packed with factual history lifted from documents, My Day columns, and reports, “The First Lady of World War II” is a look at determination in action. Author Shannon McKenna Schmidt brings this unique secret-not-secret story to the forefront, where it has belonged all along. She also shows, not at all surprisingly, that Presidents, politics, public opinion, and a brave, resolute Eleanor Roosevelt weren’t always in a four-way agreement.

What makes this book so readable is that Schmidt offers many, many side-stories to accompany her account of Roosevelt’s work, and to explain. Though they’re in here, this is not a tedious account of dates-and-battles. It’s not a dry textbook kind of story, and you’re not left dangling, wondering about small details or annoying holes in the narrative.

That leaves readers room to enjoy an astounding slice of history that’s good reading. For you who love a dashing adventure, “The First Lady of World War II” is a book to take home.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 13,000 books.