Moral Basis of Democracy, The.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Copy
Roosevelt, Eleanor. The Moral Basis of Democracy. London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1941).
8vo.; blue printed wrappers, with flaps; two negligible chips; light edgewear; spine rubbed. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First English edition; exceptionally scarce. Provenance: Eleanor Roosevelt; by descent to her son; acquired by Glenn Horowitz Bookseller from Irene Roosevelt Aitken, John’s widow.
With the exclamation on the cover, “Mrs. Roosevelt speaks,” this volume is part of series of titles on religious and spiritual topics, including Dorothy Sayers’s Creed or Chaos?, the Bishop of Winchester’s What Is Man?, and G.A. Studdert-Kennedy’s Why Aren’t All the Best Chaps Christians?, among others. Writing while the Battle of Britain raged and Americans argued vehemently and sometimes viciously about the merits of their neutrality, Roosevelt suggests that “the Christian way of life” is essential for the success of democracy, and could be mobilized in the war against fascism: “While force is abroad in the world we may have to use that weapon of force, but if we develop the fundamental beliefs and desires which make us considerate of the weak and truly anxious to see a Christ-like spirit on earth, we will have educated ourselves for Democracy in much the same way that others have gone about educating people for other purposes.” She supplies a broader aim in a prefatory statement of purpose:
…I am hoping in this little book to be able to give a clear definition of the thinking of one citizen in a Democracy. By so doing it may be possible to stimulate the thoughts of many people so that they will force themselves to decide what Democracy means to them—whether they can believe in it as fervently as they can in their personal religion; whether it is worth a sacrifice to them, and what they consider that sacrifice must be.
A fragile wartime publication, and issued only in paper wrappers. In the earliest years of the war, Eleanor’s stature amongst the English was extraordinarily high. In fact, she was the first member of the administration dispatched to London following Pearl Harbor.
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