[Watts] is at her best when she gives a frank accounting of the barriers the Black Cabinet encountered.

Every once in a long while, a book comes along that pulls back the curtain on an unheralded time in America’s civil rights past and leaves one inspired and eager to learn more. The Black Cabinet is an invaluable historical contribution to an overlooked era of American history that had far-reaching impacts for African American civil rights movements still to be born.

Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The Black Cabinet is sprawling and epic, and Watts deftly re-creates whole scenes from archival material. With six main Cabinet characters, several subplots, infighting and at least three presidencies involved, however, it’s a lot to take in.

... meticulously researched and beautifully written.

Unfortunately, Watts’ repeated use of the term 'Black Cabinet' tends to exaggerate the status of its members and subordinate the individual stories of those it is meant to encompass. Until Bethune 'took command,' in Watts’ words, the group accomplished little.

... thouroughly researched.

... a unique and enlightening portrait.

Drawing on government documents, newspapers, and an extensive number of archives, historian Watts vividly recounts an important chapter in black American history: the place of black advisers in Roosevelt’s administration.