Recognized among the most admired people of the 20th century, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt first overcame an unhappy childhood when both parents and a younger brother died before she turned 10. Sent to school in London, she returned in 1905 to marry her distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, and was given in marriage by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt. We'll explore how her marriage combined a complicated personal life - involving a controlling mother-in-law, six children and FDR's affair - with an extraordinarily successful political role as FDR's surrogate, the nation's longest-serving First Lady, an ardent civil rights activist and respected international diplomat.

Instructor bio: Diana Carlin is professor emerita of communications at Saint Louis University and a retired professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. Her teaching and research interests are in political communication with an emphasis on speeches, debates, campaigns, women in politics and first ladies.