| 1970 PhD | The Johns Hopkins University |
| 1964 MA | The Johns Hopkins University |
| 1962 BA | Hunter College (CUNY) |
Blanche Wiesen Cook is Distinguished Professor of History and Women's Studies at the John Jay College and
the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her definitive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol I
The Early Years 1884 - 1933; Vol II The Defining Years 1933- 1938; Vol III The War Years and After, published by
Viking, was called “monumental and inspirational...[a] grand biography” by the New York Times Book Review.
Eleanor Roosevelt Volume One, on the NY Times bestseller list for 3 months, received many awards, including
the 1992 Biography Prize from the Los Angeles Times, and the Lambda Literary Award. Eleanor Roosevelt
Volume Two was on the NY Times bestseller list. Eleanor Roosevelt Volume Three was named a New York
Times notable book of 2016 and one of NPR’s 10 Best Books of 2016. The trilogy is available in Penguin
Paperback and on ebook.
The author of numerous articles, Professor Cook’s books include The Declassified Eisenhower
(Doubleday/Penguin), a New York Times Book Review notable book of 1981 and Crystal Eastman On Women &
Revolution (Oxford University Press). For more than twenty years, she produced and hosted her own program
for Radio Pacifica, originally called Activists and Agitators, and Women and the World in the 1980s. Professor
Cook has appeared frequently on television, on such programs as The Today Show, Good Morning America, CSpan's
Booknotes, and MacNeil/Lehrer, where she participated in the joint PBS-NBC coverage of the 1992
Democratic National Convention.
Professor Cook served as Vice-President for Research of the American Historical Association, and Vice-
President and Chair of the Fund for Open Information and Accountability (FOIA, Inc.) She was Co-Founder and
Co-Chair of the Freedom of Information and Access Committee of the Organization of American Historians,
which was actively committed to maintaining the integrity of the Freedom of
Information Act.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Volume I, 1884-1933, (Viking, 1992; Penguin, 1993; Bloomsbury, UK, 1993)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, 1992
National Best Seller
American Library Association Notable Book, 1992
New York Times Notable Book, 1992
Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Nonfiction, 1992
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Volume II, 1933-1938: The Defining Years (Viking, 1999; Penguin, July 2000; Bloomsbury UK)
New York Times Notable Book, 1999
National Best Seller
Among 10 Best Books, 1999, New York Times Notable Book, l981
Christian Science Monitor
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Volume III, 1939- 1962: The War Years and After (Viking 2016; Penguin,
July 2016)
New York Times Notable Book, 2016
One of NPR’s 10 Best Books of 2016
THE DECLASSIFIED EISENHOWER: A DIVIDED LEGACY OF PEACE AND
POLITICAL WARFARE, (Doubleday 1981, Penguin 1984)
New York Times Notable Book 1981
CRYSTAL EASTMAN ON WOMEN AND REVOLUTION (Oxford, 1978)
Senior Editor, The Garland Library of War and Peace, a 360 volume reprint series; and ten anthologies (Garland
Publishing, 1970-1980)
Contributor and co-editor, WOMEN IN CULTURE AND POLITICS: A CENTURY
OF CHANGE (Indiana U Press, 1985) “The Work and Legacy of Crystal Eastman and Alexandra Kollontai”)
Contributor and co-editor, PAST-IMPERFECT: ALTERNATIVE ESSAYS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY, 2 vols., (Knopf, 1973)
“In Pursuit of Property: The Dispossession of the American Indian,” vol. l
Bibliography on Peace Research in History, (American Bibliographic Center, Clio Press, 1969)
ARTICLES (Partial Listing)
“Women Under Socialism: Dignity, Respect, Equality, Love,” Imagine Living in A Socialist USA,
Edited by Frances Goldin, Debby Smith,and Michael Steven Smith, (Harper 2014)
“On A Zion in the Wilderness,” in Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon, eds.,WRESTLING WITH ZION (Grove Press, 2003)
Introduction to Owen Lattimore, ORDEAL BY SLANDER (Carroll & Graf, 2003)
About ER, “Storytellers,” in Brian Lamb, BOOKNOTES (Times Books, Random House, 1997)
“Outing History,” in Mary Rhiel and David Suchoff, eds., THE SEDUCTIONS OF BIOGRAPHY (Routledge, 1996)
“Presidential Papers in Crisis: Some Thoughts on Lies, Secrets, and Silence,” in PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY
(Winter 1996)
“Cold War Fallout: A Review Essay of Jay Gould's THE ENEMY WITHIN: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING NEAR NUCLEAR
REACTORS,” in THE NATION (9 December 1996)
“The Rosenbergs and the Crimes of a Century,” in Marjorie Garber & Rebecca Walkowitz, eds., SECRET AGENTS: THE
ROSENBERG CASE, McCARTHYISM & FIFTIES AMERICA (Routledge, l995); also in Rob Okun, ed., THE ROSENBERGS:
COLLECTED VISIONS OF ARTISTS AND WRITERS (Basic Books, 1993)
“The Radical Women of Greenwich Village: From Crystal Eastman to Eleanor Roosevelt,” in Rick Beard and Leslie Cohen
Berlowitz, eds.,GREENWICH VILLAGE (Rutgers University Press for the Museum of the City of New York, 1993)
“U.S. Foreign Relations History: On Secrecy and Documentation,” PERSPECTIVES, THE AHA NEWSLETTER, November
1991
“Women, Peace and the Environment: A Review Essay,” THE WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS, l991.
“Crystal Eastman,” in PORTRAITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN, edited by G.J. Barker-Benfield and Catherine Clinton (St
Martin's Press, 1991)
“Feminist Biography: A Review Essay,” MS MAGAZINE, 1990.
“Freedom Fighters: A Review Essay,” THE WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS, June 1989.
“Eleanor Roosevelt and Human Rights: The Battle for Peace and Planetary Decency,” in Edward P. Craypol, ed., WOMEN
AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
(Greenwood, 1987; Scholarly Resources, 1992)
“Eleanor Roosevelt, Power and Politics,” in Jess Flemion and Colleen M. O'Connor, eds., ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: AN
AMERICAN JOURNEY (San Diego State University Press, 1987)
“WILPF: 75 Years of Courage and Conviction,” A Celebration of The Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom, keynote address, Madison Wisconsin, June 1989, reprinted in PEACE AND FREEDOM, September 1989
“The Impact of Anti-Communism on American Life,” keynote address, Institute for Media Analysis Conference, Harvard
University, October l988; in SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, Winter 1989
“The Fifties,” with Gerald Markowitz, in Howard Quint, Dean Albertson, and Milton Cantor, eds., MAIN PROBLEMS IN
AMERICAN HISTORY, vol. 2, (The Dorsey Press, 5th ed., 1988)
“WILPF at Seventy,” PEACE AND FREEDOM, 70th Anniversary, Sept 1985
“Feminism, Socialism, and Sexual Freedom: The Work and Legacy of Crystal Eastman and Alexandra Kollontai,” in
STRATEGIES DES FEMMES, Marie-Claire Pasquier, et. al., eds., (Paris: Les Editions Tierce, l984); US edition, WOMEN IN
CULTURE AND POLITICS: A CENTURY OF CHANGE. Judith Friedlander, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Alice Kessler- Harris, Carroll
Smith-Rosenberg, eds., (Indiana University Press, 1985)
“Biographer and Subject: A Critical Connection,” in Carol Ascher, Louise DeSalvo, Sara Ruddick, eds. BETWEEN WOMEN
(Beacon Press, 1984; Routledge 1993)
“First Comes the Lie: C.D. Jackson and Political Warfare,” RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW, #31, (1984)
“Turn Toward Peace: Eleanor Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, in Joan Hoff-Wilson and Marjorie Lightman, eds., WITHOUT
PRECEDENT: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (Indiana University Press, 1984)
“The Real Eleanor Roosevelt: An Essay in Celebration of ER's Centennial,” Ms (September l984)
“Feminism and Peace Research: Thoughts on Alternative Strategy,” WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY, (Summer 1984)
“A Utopian Female Support Network: The Case of the Henry Street Settlement,” in Ruby Rohrlich and Elaine Hoffman
Baruch, eds., WOMEN IN SEARCH OF UTOPIA: MAVERICKS AND MYTHMAKERS, (Schocken Books, 1984)
“History in Shreds: The Fate of the Freedom of Information Act,” with Gerald Markowitz, RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW, #26
(October 1982)
“Women and Politics: The Obscured Dimension,” in Kenneth Wheeler and Virginia Lee Lussier, eds., WOMEN, THE ARTS,
AND THE 1920S IN PARIS AND NEW YORK, (Rutgers U Press, 1982)
“The Witnesses of REDS: Putting the Names and History to the Faces,” DIVERSION (March 1982); partially reprinted in
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN, (April 1982)
“The Life of Lorena Hickok: ER's Friend,” a review essay, FEMINIST STUDIES (Fall, 1980)
“The Historical Denial of Lesbianism: A Review Essay, “RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW, #20 (Spring/ Summer 1979)
“Women Alone Stir My Imagination: Lesbianism & the Cultural Tradition,” SIGNS (Summer 1979)
“Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman and Emma Goldman,” CHRYSALIS #3,
(Autumn 1977); Reprinted by Out and Out Books, 1979; also in Nancy Cott and Elizabeth Pleck, eds., A HERITAGE OF HER
OWN (Simon & Schuster, 1979); Linda Kerber and Jane DeHart Matthews, eds., WOMEN'S AMERICA (Oxford, 1982)
“Psychosurgery for Social Control,” HERESIES, (#6, 1979); reprinted in AEGIS (May/June 1979)-- both special issues on
Women and Violence
“Surveillance and Mind Control,” in Howard Frazier, ed., UNCLOAKING THE CIA (The Free Press, Macmillan, 1978)
“The Dwight David Eisenhower Library: Manuscript Fiefdom at Abilene,” in Alonzo Hamby and Edward Weldon, eds.,
ACCESS TO THE PAPERS OF RECENT PUBLIC FIGURES, (Organization of American Historians, 1977)
“American Justifications for Military Massacres from the Pequot War to Mylai,” JOURNAL OF PEACE AND CHANGE,
(Autumn, 1975)
“The Records of Public Officials,” participant, 48th American Assembly, Arden House, April 1975. [This American
Assembly resulted in new federal laws for presidential and executive records.]
“Dwight David Eisenhower: Antimilitarist in the White House,” (Forum Press Monographs, 1974)
“Democracy in Wartime: Antimilitarism in England and the U.S.” AMERICAN STUDIES JOURNAL (Spring 1972); reprinted
in Charles Chatfield, ed., AMERICAN PEACE MOVEMENTS, Schocken Books, 1973)
“The Woman's Peace Party: Collaboration and Non-Cooperation in World War I,” JOURNAL OF PEACE AND CHANGE,
1972
INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS, THE GARLAND LIBRARY ON WAR AND PEACE:
Jane Addams, PEACE AND BREAD IN TIME OF WAR
C.R. Buxton, TOWARD A LASTING SETTLEMENT
Randolph Bourne, TOWARDS AN ENDURING PEACE
Marie Louise Degen, HISTORY OF THE WOMAN'S PEACE PARTY
William Isaac Hull, PREPAREDNESS: THE AMERICAN VERSUS THE MILITARY PROGRAMME
Edward Krehbiel, NATIONALISM, WAR AND SOCIETY
Arthur Ponsonby, FALSEHOOD IN WARTIME: CONTAINING AN ASSORTMENT OF LIES CIRCULATED THROUGHOUT THE
NATIONS DURING THE GREAT WAR
Helena Swanwick, THE WAR AND ITS EFFECTS UPON WOMEN
Helena Swanwick, BUILDERS OF PEACE: TEN YEARS OF THE UNION OF DEMOCRATIC CONTROL