The book Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal and Public Life by William Youngs has many strengths and weaknesses. The strengths made the book interesting and a delight to read, however the weaknesses made the book confusing and hard to follow.

            First, this biography offers great overview and insights on Eleanor Roosevelt’s life. One of the strengths is that Youngs did not show any biased. He simply gave us a balanced look at Eleanor’s life. Youngs told the entire story both the good and the bad, and did not care about what people would say about his book. Young’s presentation and writing style was also a strength.  The way he wrote the book made the book clearer, easy to understand, and a delight to read.  The best part about Young’s style is that he does not use big words. This is a strength because most authors use big words which make the books hard to understand. I believe that due to Young’s style, this book can be understood by virtually anyone. The research and studying that Youngs did was also a strength. He used many direct quotes which helped me get a feeling of what people thought of her. I would definitely read more books by Youngs, if written in the same style as this book.

I believe that the major weakness of this book is that it’s too short. The book hits all the main points but did not go into details about many of the events in Eleanor’s life. The book was great but it would have been better if it had given more details. For instance, what did Eleanor do when she discovered that Franklin had cheated on her again? What happened to Lucy Mercer? These were just a couple of questions that the book did not go into details about. Also, the illustrations took away from the glory of the book. It explained nothing that was going on in the book, and should be at the end of the book, not in the middle.  The major weaknesses of the book were that it was not long enough and it could have told us more about Eleanor Roosevelt’s life.  

In conclusion, I think that Eleanor Roosevelt was a great woman. She did many things to help women and minorities. Eleanor was a smart and intelligent woman who just wanted a peaceful world for all of us. People admired Eleanor simply because she cared about people. It did not matter if you were rich or poor, she would show you respect, and I admire her for that. Eleanor had a tough childhood, but she overcame it and became an American heroine. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the life of Eleanor Roosevelt.  This book has a historical value, because it tells us about the life of one of the greatest ladies of all time.