The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

- Season 1

(2014)

The adventurous life, political rise and personal tragedies of Theodore Roosevelt. The sheltered youth of his 5th cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The unhappy childhood of Teddy's niece and FDR's future wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin's marriage to Eleanor. Eleanor's search for her own identity and place in the world.

T.R. runs for a third term as a Progressive, explores the Amazon and suffers one final grave loss in his twilight years. FDR as President Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Eleanor faces life's harsh realities. America in WWI.

FDR's battle with polio. Eleanor's independence and political activism. Political division within the Roosevelt clan. FDR returns to politics in a big way. The Great Depression ends the Roaring Twenties. Assassin targets FDR.

FDR's pre-WWII presidency. The New Deal renews America. FDR's unprecedented popularity, the conservative opposition and Huey Long's populism. FDR warns isolationists of Hitler. Eleanor's platonic friendship with Lorena Hickok.

WWII starts in Europe. FDR prepares the country for war and aids Churchill. Isolationists fight him at every step - until Pearl Harbor. FDR's unprecedented third term. Eleanor tackles racism and poverty. New jobs bring more diversity.

The war - and the resulting levels of work and security - had kept Franklin Roosevelt out of public sight. By the spring of 1944 however, he was seriously ill with bronchitis. This information was kept from the public with his doctor issuing far more positive medical reports. The event most had been waiting for finally occurred on June 6, 1944 when Allied forces landed in France. Among those going ashore was FDR's cousin and longtime political foe Theodore Roosevelt Jr., a Brigadier General who led his men in the attack at Utah beach. Less than a month later however, ...