The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey

Despite continuing impediments, Perkins, a social worker, successfully broke into a man’s world and was a major player for all twelve years of FDR’s administration. An investigative reporter, Kirstin Downey has uncovered France Perkins’s extraordinary strengths in shaping and securing the central domestic accomplishments of the New Dealers. “For all of her apparent modesty and fierce sense of privacy, Frances Perkins wanted to be known by posterity for her contributions to FDR and his New Deal, particularly Social Security. This book is a joy!” -Nick Taylor, author of American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work Perkins ignored the glass ceiling and changed America. “Kirstin Downey gives Frances Perkins the biography she deserves, the story of a fierce advocate who put people first, a public servant who was actually worthy of the name, and a bracing reminder of what inspired government can do. Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former U.S. With wit and insight, Downey recounts the accomplishments of this singular woman and invites us to celebrate her life.” -Robert B. Her legacy included Social Security, unemployment insurance, and other initiatives that have improved the lives of generations of Americans. “The New Deal was a big deal for America - and, as Kirstin Downey shows in this illuminating and sparkling book, Frances Perkins, my predecessor as Labor Secretary, was the moving force behind much of it. Many passages dealing with the Great Depression, immigration and the impending world war could have been lifted from today’s news.' - Charlestown Post and Courier It is a window to another time through which we are able to observe the birthing pains of reforms we now take for granted. “The book is more than a biography of an extraordinary woman. faces the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression.” -Dierdre Donahue, USA Today “Kirstin Downey’s excellent new biography of Perkins.

The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey