Fearless : A novel of Frances Perkins and Social Security
(Book)

1934: the bank panics are over, unemployment is down to twenty-one percent, and the Oklahoma dirt deposited by the latest Dust Bowl storm has been washed from the windows. From her office in Washington, DC, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a president's cabinet, fights to enact Social Security. She is demonized by Republicans, communists, businessmen, and union organizers alike. FDR supports her one minute and leaves her dangling the next. Her personal life offers no respite: her husband is secreted away in a hospital for the mentally ill, while her teenage daughter threatens to drop out of college. When Frances's best friend dies suddenly and the bill stalls in Congress, she turns to a range of allies, from wealthy mine owner Josephine Roche to Harry Hopkins, fiery defender of everyday people; from hotshot attorneys to Walter Chrysler; from her fierce secretary, Miss Jay, to a strong group of women friends. With their help, Frances passes legislation so that Americans have less to fear from life's uncertainty.