A provocative biography of the Roosevelt family draws on family secrets and complex rivalries to argue that the Roosevelts' rise to power was driven by a series of inside competitions that were witnessed firsthand by an increasingly begrudging Eleanor Roosevelt.

"I can do one of two things, I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."--Theodore Roosevelt. During Theodore Roosevelt's presidency--from 1901 to 1909, when Mark Twain called him the most popular man in America--his daughter Alice Roosevelt mesmerized the world with her antics and beauty. Alice was known for carrying a gun, a copy of the Constitution, and a green snake in her purse. When her father...

A provocative dual portrait of first cousins Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth discusses how their tangled lives were shaped by 20th-century history and politics, sharing insights into their childhoods, respective beliefs and adversarial relationship.