Blanche Wiesen Cook

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 and award-winning 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, was called “monumental and inspirational...[a] grand biography” by the New York Times Book Review.

The author of numerous articles, Professor Cook’s books include The Declassified Eisenhower and Crystal Eastman On Women & Revolution. 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 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.