Eleanor Roosevelt Quote

"As far as he (Harry Hopkins) was concerned, war needs were paramount. My husband felt the same. I, however, could not help feeling that it was the New Deal social objectives that had fostered the spirit that would make it possible to give people the feeling that in fighting the war we were still fighting for these same objectives . . . I felt it was essential both to the prosecution of the war and to the period after the war that the fight for the rights of minorities should continue." page 230

This quote is revealing not only because Eleanor Roosevelt is a first lady depicting a view very different from her husband, but also because it shows how the war effort could have been very different and America could have prepared for war differently. Roosevelt devotes much of her autobiography going into great detail many of the New Deal programs and how they affected American life. Her view that such programs still demanded the same attention during wartime only further shows how much she really believed in the programs and their success for the country. Although her quote is true in noting how the New Deal objectives fostered American spirit, I am not sure that focusing on more New Deal objectives during the crucial war preparation would have helped as much as she thought. World War II being a total war demanding so much physical contribution (people, guns, tanks, airplanes etc . . .), social reform most likely would have taken too much away from the administrative centralization necessary to accomplish all of the physical demands. But, of course it is hard to know since she does not mention any concrete reform propositions to consider.