Class of 1977 Book Club – “Becoming Madam Secretary”

Nancy Mathiasen and I will be leading the discussion of the book: Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray.  I think we all know a little about Frances Perkins, but I know we will learn a lot as we read this historical fiction novel.

Although this will be the book we discuss, there are many other books about Secretary Perkins, including “Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’ Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany” by Rebecca Brenner Graham (MHC ’15), “The Woman Behind the New Deal” by Kristen Downey, “The Roosevelt I Knew” by Frances Perkins and Adam Cohen, and “Madame Secretary Frances Perkins” by  George W. Martin. Feel free to read any (or all) of these books too, to bring more depth to our discussion (am I giving you an assignment as if we are back at College???).

The first few sentences of the summary on Amazon of this last book by George W. Martin are “Frances Perkins (1880-1965) attended Mount Holyoke College, majoring in physics. In her final semester, she visited mills along the Connecticut River to see working conditions as part of a class in American economic history. She was horrified.” So we know “Becoming Madame Secretary” is going to be a great story about a MHC alum.

And on this past March 25^th, Heather Cox Richardson (Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American <[email protected]>) wrote about Frances Perkins, commemorating 114 years since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which Frances Perkins had witnessed.  This was a turning point in her activism towards improving labor conditions, ultimately leading to her appointment by FDR as the Secretary of Labor.  “Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation’s basic social safety net.  “There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”