Read & Yak Book Discussion: June 27, 12:00 noon
Amazingly, most Americans have forgotten her name, and even some historians have overlooked her importance, yet a woman named Frances Perkins was one of the most important social reformers in U.S. history.
On Saturday, June 27, 2026, from 12:00p to 1:30p Read & Yak participants will discuss “The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience,” by Kirstin Downey. We gather in person in the Activities Room and online via Zoom. Click here to join the Zoom discussion. Meeting ID: 822 7558 0676. Passcode: 844657.
One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s closest friends, and the first female Secretary of Labor, Perkins capitalized on the president’s political savvy and popularity to enact most of the Depression-era programs that are today considered essential parts of the country’s social safety network. Her legacy is vast: the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, the nationwide unemployment insurance program, the growth of the American labor movement, the federal abolition of child labor, and the creation of Social Security.
About the author
Author Kirstin Downey, an award-winning journalist for the Washington Post for 20 years, completed “The Woman Behind the New Deal” after almost a decade of research that sought to plumb the secrets of Frances Perkins’s success. Downey visited dozens of public and private archives throughout the United States, in England, and in Switzerland, to dig up long-overlooked documents that revealed Perkins’s importance. She interviewed dozens of people, many of them very old, who had known Frances Perkins. She found documents that had been lost, misplaced, or stored in people’s attics or closets, even once in a barn, at the Frances Perkins homestead in Newcastle, Maine.
All are welcome at Read & Yak
You do not need to be a participant at Lutheran Church of the Foothills to enjoy the Read & Yak monthly book discussions. We meet in the Activities Room from 12:00p to 1:30p on the fourth Saturday of the month, including during the summer. Some participants join via Zoom from out of state or even from home in Tucson. Feel free to bring your lunch to enjoy as we yak. Even if you haven’t finished reading the book for that month, you are welcome to join the discussion.
To receive calendar reminders and discussion questions for upcoming Read & Yak gatherings, email Holly Hope at hollyhopeaz@gmail.com (please include “Yak” somewhere in the subject line).
Upcoming discussions
July 25: “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa,” by Nicholas Drayson.
August 22: “To Engineer Is Human,” by Henry Petroski.
September 26: “This Tender Land,” by William Krueger.
~ Leslie Johnson, for Read & Yak
