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An Immigrant Woman in America’s Inner Circles
Anna Marie Rosenberg became one of the most influential women in the United States during the middle of the 20th Century. An advisor to Presidents who shaped public policy from the New Deal to the Cold War, she is almost entirely forgotten today.
“The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America,” by Christopher C. Gorham is a first biography of this influential woman. It recounts a life that should be better known today.
Born Anna Marie Lederer, in Budapest, Hungary, she moved to New York City with her mother and younger sister in 1912 to join her father, who arrived there in 1910. There, Gorham shows, she became the classic American immigrant success story.
She made her mark early, mediating a student strike during World War I while attending Wadleigh High School for Girls. While still in high school she married Julius Rosenberg, a World War I veteran she met as a pen pal.
As a suffragette, she became involved in New York City Democratic politics. She launched that into a career in public relations and as a labor relations mediator. She gained a reputation for fair dealing, respected by labor and management alike.
Despite her foreign origins and her Jewish background, she was soon accepted as a member of the then-WASPish upper echelons of American public life, becoming close to Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and making friends across party lines and social lines.
When Roosevelt became President, he enlisted Rosenberg to help with the New Deal, using her in senior positions in National Industrial Recovery Act and Social Security, the only woman at those levels. During World War II she became one of Roosevelt’s troubleshooters, calming race relations, and running different offices dealing with manpower.
In 1944 Roosevelt sent her to Europe to investigate demobilization issues. She helped create the GI Bill. Later she would become Assistant Secretary of Defense under Truman during the Korean War, despite opposition by Joe McCarthy.
Despite her accomplishments, she fell out of step with the Democratic Party as it lurched left in the 1960s. That combined with her writing no memoirs (and documenting little of her career) led to obscurity as the century ended.
Gorham’s biography may help restore her to public consciousness. Although he provides a comprehensive account of her career, “The Confidante” is also a human and intimate portrait of a remarkable woman.
“The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America,” by Christopher C. Gorham, Citadel, 2023, 384 pages, $28.00 (Hardcover), $23.80 (Ebook), $18.37 (Audiobook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Published in History
I love when you feature women’s stories, particularly at a time when women were less visible as assets to our country. Thanks, Seawriter!
I look for good stories. Sometimes they feature women. Like this one.
Julius Rosenberg? Strange coincidence.
Unmentioned is that the NIRA was modeled on Mussolini’s Italian fascism, of which FDR was a big fan. And that its regulatory scheme was literally laughed out of the Supreme Court on a 9-0 vote, in the case of a Jewish kosher chicken purveyor (Schechter Poultry Corp v. US) from NYC who had been charged for failing to comply with the “blue eagle” regulations promulgated under the NIRA by allowing customers to select their own chicken. That case engendered FDR’s infamous attack on the Court with his court packing threat (the echoes of which are with us still, insane as our national politics are). So in this one area, alone, it appears that this notable woman had a pernicious impact on freedom in America.
The GI bill is arguably the best education bill ever passed by Congress, in that the money followed the student.
I share Amity Shlaes’ assessment of the New Deal generally as a very raw deal. And Social Security as worse than an intergenerational ponzi scheme.
So, will we be allowed to be critical of this notable person, or are we required to join the chorus of praise for such little-recognized major, though in some cases deleterious, accomplishments?
The tone of the review, suggesting the tone of the book, bespeaks more hagiography than history, (as Progressives are wont to produce–see Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “No Ordinary Time” for an example).
Seawriter, do you know anything about the accuracy of the allegations of Communist connections on the part of Anna Marie Rosenberg? Joe McCarthy was on to something in his allegations, though not necessarily correct in every instance.
On another point, it appears that the “Julius Rosenberg” to whom she was married is not the infamous Julius Rosenberg, who gave atomic secrets to the Soviets. Wikipedia shows that Anne Marie Rosenberg was married to her first husband, Julius, from 1919 to 1962. The traitor named Julius Rosenberg was executed in 1953.
They were inaccurate. She opposed Communism. He went after her to get back at Truman and because he did not like women in positions of power, especially immigrants.