The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents a conversation
and book signing
with Charlotte Gray author
of PASSIONATE MOTHERS,
POWERFUL SONS: THE LIVES
OF JENNIE JEROME CHURCHILL
AND SARA DELANO ROOSEVELT
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 6PM
In-person: Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
In-person registration: fdrlibrary.org
Online: Streamed live to
the official FDR Library
YouTube and Facebook accounts
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents a conversation and book signing with Charlotte Gray author of PASSIONATE MOTHERS, POWERFUL SONS: THE LIVES OF JENNIE JEROME CHURCHILL AND SARA DELANO ROOSEVELT, at 6:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home and streamed live to the official FDR Presidential Library YouTube and Facebook accounts. This is a free public event, but registration is required to attend in-person. Visit fdrlibrary.org to register.
Synopsis:
Born into upper-class America in the same year, 1854, Sara Delano (later to become the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Jennie Jerome (later to become the mother of Winston Churchill) refused to settle into predictable, sheltered lives as little-known wives to prominent men. Instead, both women concentrated much of their energies on enabling their sons to reach the epicenter of political power on two continents.
In the mid-19th century, the British Empire was at its height, France’s Second Empire flourished, and the industrial vigor of the United States of America was catapulting the republic towards the Gilded Age. Sara and Jennie, raised with privilege but subject to the constraints of women’s roles at the time, learned how to take control of their destinies -- Sara in the prosperous Hudson Valley, and Jennie in the glittering world of Imperial London.
Yet their personalities and choices were dramatically different. A vivacious extrovert, Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill, a rising politician and scion of a noble British family. Her deft social and political maneuverings helped not only her mercurial husband but, once she was widowed, her ambitious son, Winston. By contrast, deeply conventional Sara Delano married a man as old as her father. But once widowed, she made Franklin, her only child, the focus of her existence. Thanks in large part to her financial support and her guidance, Franklin acquired the skills he needed to become a successful politician.
PASSIONATE MOTHERS, POWERFUL SONS is a study in loyalty and resilience, set against one hundred years of history. Charlotte Gray argues that Jennie and Sara are too often presented as lesser figures in the backdrop of history rather than as two remarkable individuals who were key in shaping the characters of the sons who adored them and in preparing them for leadership on the world stage.
Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers and the author of twelve acclaimed books of literary nonfiction, including THE PROMISE OF CANADA and THE MASSEY MURDER: A MAID, HER MASTER, AND THE TRIAL THAT SHOCKED A COUNTRY. An adaptation of her bestseller GOLD DIGGERS: STRIKING IT RICH IN THE KLONDIKE was broadcast as a television miniseries. An adjunct research professor in the department of history at Carleton University, Gray has received numerous awards, including the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Visit her at CharlotteGray.ca.
