Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Cordery) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, try these LitLovers discussion pointers to help get you started for Alice:

1. Alice isn't always a likable figure, but she speaks her mind honestly—and to those in power. Do you admire her?Do you consider her forthright, courageous, or simply offensive? Take into account the era in which she came of age and "reigned"—an era when women were to seen but not heard?

2. To what extent did her father's neglect contribute to Alice's unconventional approach to life—all her attention-getting chicanery?

3. Though Alice was "never elected, but always involved" Cordery considers her a politician in her own right. What does Cordery mean by that? Do you agree with her?

4. Alice may well have been the smartest of all the Roosevelt children, and Cordery thinks she would have been capable of holding office. Had she lived in another era, do you see her running for office...and would you could have supported her?

3. Obviously, the most unsettling aspects of Alice's life was her marriage to Nicholas Longworth and subsequent affair and child by Senator William Borah. There's a lot of fodder to chew on for a good discussion! (Also, consider the role she played in FDR's life, encouraging his affair with Lucy Mercy Rutherford.)

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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