After more than two centuries as one of New York’s founding clans, the Roosevelts discovered that their family tree had so many branches that a woman could marry within the fold without changing her maiden name. Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt never changed hers; Alice Roosevelt Longworth did, but the newspapers that reported her every outlandish action and utterance always referred to her by all three.
It’s too bad that a book as good as this one should have such a misleading title. “Hissing Cousins” is perfect for sales, but the book is not, per se, about catfights. The oil-and-water personalities of the two cousins are simply the opportunity to illustrate what the authors see as the persistence and easy acceptance of Old World–style political dynasties in our supposedly modern era, and what it could mean for 2016 and beyond.
Comments