The Life of Herbert Hoover : Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933

This Is The First Definitive Study Of The Presidency Of America's Least Understood And Most Under-appreciated Chief Executive. Combining Government With Private Resources, Hoover Became The First President To Pit Government Action Against The Economic Cycle, Setting Precedents And Spawning Ideas Employed By His Successor And All Future Presidents. This is the first definitive study of the presidency of America's least understood, most neglected and most under-appreciated Chief Executive. Born in a Quaker hamlet in Iowa, orphaned at nine, Herbert Hoover rose to wealth and world fame as an international mining engineer, the savior of Belgium during the Great War, and Food Administrator under Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps the greatest Secretary of Commerce in American history, he helped engineer the prosperity of the 1920s and vainly warned of an economy overheated by speculation that collapsed in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Combining government with private resources, he became the first president to pit government action against the economic cycle, setting precedents and spawning ideas employed by his successor and all future presidents. Modest, shy, humble, with a subtle sense of humor, he lacked the self-promotional style of professional politicians and eschewed political invective. His depression measures mitigated the effects of the depression yet failed to end it. In foreign policy he sponsored naval disarmament, refused to recognition territory seized by force, and made world peace his priority. Maligned as a miserly misanthrope, he was blamed for the crash and depression during the 1932 campaign, which he lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt by a slightly larger margin than he had defeated Al Smith in 1928. Jeansonne's study sweeps away the cobwebs of neglect from Hoover's presidency and his lively prose humanizes and evokes greater understanding of our thirty-first president. -- Publisher's description Front Matter....Pages N1-xxi Prologue: The Long Dusty Road from West Branch....Pages 1-13 Landslide....Pages 15-42 Prepping for the Presidency and Sparring with Congress....Pages 43-63 Humanizing Hoover....Pages 65-87 A Whirling Dervish....Pages 89-112 The Engine of Prosperity Jumps the Track....Pages 113-128 The Seventy-First Congress....Pages 129-154 Hoover and the World....Pages 155-175 A Polarized Party....Pages 177-194 Combating the Depression Phase I, 1929–1930....Pages 195-215 The Seventy-Second Congress....Pages 217-251 Combating the Depression Phase II, 1931–1932....Pages 253-277 Frustrated Farmers, Angry Veterans....Pages 279-301 Race, Gender, and Labor....Pages 303-327 The Grim Reaper Stalks the World....Pages 329-345 Life in the White House....Pages 347-365 The Peter Pan in Hoover....Pages 367-382 The Fourth Estate....Pages 383-401 Running for His Life....Pages 403-426 The Hard Interregnum....Pages 427-450 Fighting Quaker....Pages 451-468 Back Matter....Pages 469-539