Hannah
I was not familiar with the name Francis Perkins when I started this audiobook, but found myself falling in love with this historical fiction that dug into the very real accomplishments of the first female member of the president's cabinet (longest serving secretary of labor, architect of the 40 hour work week and social security, drafted law to ban child labor, fought to aid Jewish refugees feeling Nazi Germany) along with imagining what she must've been thinking while battling through a majority male government to fight for working class rights. I was left with immense respect for Francis Perkins and for FDR who broke gender conventions to empower her to change our country.
'Why economics?', I echoed gamely. 'Because many people in American believe poverty is a moral problem having to do with sloth or some other sin we can blame on individuals. But I believe poverty in America is an economic problem that can be solved...and I intend to solve it.'
Social security - which was expanded again and again to cover more Americans of every race and creed - is now so much a part of American psychology that I truly believe no politician, political party, or political group can possibly destroy it and maintain a democratic system. I suppose I should also be grateful that the reforms I fought for are bricks so firmly embedded in the edifice of national life that Americans now take them for granted.
I was not familiar with the name Francis Perkins when I started this audiobook, but found myself falling in love with this historical fiction that dug into the very real accomplishments of the first female member of the president's cabinet (longest serving secretary of labor, architect of the 40 hour work week and social security, drafted law to ban child labor, fought to aid Jewish refugees feeling Nazi Germany) along with imagining what she must've been thinking while battling through a majority male government to fight for working class rights. I was left with immense respect for Francis Perkins and for FDR who broke gender conventions to empower her to change our country.
'Why economics?', I echoed gamely. 'Because many people in American believe poverty is a moral problem having to do with sloth or some other sin we can blame on individuals. But I believe poverty in America is an economic problem that can be solved...and I intend to solve it.'
Social security - which was expanded again and again to cover more Americans of every race and creed - is now so much a part of American psychology that I truly believe no politician, political party, or political group can possibly destroy it and maintain a democratic system. I suppose I should also be grateful that the reforms I fought for are bricks so firmly embedded in the edifice of national life that Americans now take them for granted.