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Library of American Biography
Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive
This interesting and insightful book examines the life of one of America's least favored presidents with a sensitive and objective eye. Herbert Hoover's career followed a pattern familiar in the history of the United humble beginnings surmounted by hard work and tremendous ambition, wealth, public service and, eventually, the presidency. From his Quaker youth he acquired morals and values that he would preserve throughout his entire life. These values ultimately created an unbridgeable gulf between him and U.S. citizens as he confronted the Great Depression soon after taking office. There would always be little comprehension between the president and the people who looked to him for leadership. He died unpopular and isolated, disowned by his own party, embittered by the lack of understanding, and convinced that the burden of blame for the depression had been thrust on him unfairly. This volume seeks to shed light not only on the man and his career, but also on the evolving nation that rejected him. Title of related interest also available from Waveland Jeansonne, Transformation and America 1921-1045 (ISBN 9781577663829).
307 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Joan Hoff
21 books3 followersJoan Hoff is currently a research professor of history at Montana State University. She is a former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, a former executive director of the Organization of American Historians, and a former director of the Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 30, 2018
This is an extended review of this short presidential biography.
Forever known, to his reputation’s detriment, as the man who presided over the onset of the Great Depression, most of us remember little else about the life and achievements of Herbert Hoover. The short biography Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive, by Joan Hoff Wilson, is an effort to show that Hoover was, in fact, a progressive statesman in some facets of his leadership. Wilson attempts to demonstrate the ways in which historical memory often misrepresents Hoover’s work as a public figure and to rehabilitate his image somewhat in this largely sympathetic book. Basing her arguments extensively on Hoover's personal philosophies as expressed in written documents and in action, she attempts to set the record a little straighter about this much-maligned politician.
Remembered by most Americans as the President who was unable to remedy the effects of the depression which began in 1929, Wilson shows that there is much more to the story of Herbert Hoover. Beginning with his Quaker upbringing in West Branch, Iowa, she follows the development of his personal philosophy regarding the relationship between society and government to explain his actions throughout his long and eventful life. The point Wilson emphasizes is Hoover's Progressive (capital P, representing the movement of the first two decades of the century) belief in a blend of individual initiative, equal opportunity for all, and cooperation for the good of the group. A few examples will illustrate this point. Even though his unfortunate decision to forcefully evict the Bonus Army strikes a tone of Hoover as a repressive figure, in normal circumstances he often opposed using the confrontational measures against strikers that, for instance, brought his predecessor Calvin Coolidge national fame. Hoover also favored collective bargaining in order to help distribute industrial profits more evenly, also largely out of place in the economically conservative 1920s, because he was convinced that economic inequality increased discontent and led to more radical ideologies such as socialism, which he abhorred. He also disagreed with the punitive nature of the Versailles Peace Treaty because of its coercive stance toward defeated Germany.
Drawing on his experience as coordinator of American relief efforts in Europe following the end of World War I, Hoover wanted to find a middle way between the radical (state socialism) and conservative (monopolistic capitalism) political ideologies he saw there. Fearing state socialism because it was coercive and stifled individual initiative, but also disliking monopoly capitalism for making wealth an end in itself, he developed a political philosophy that attempted to find a middle ground. His solution was to attempt a balance between self-interest and technological innovation that featured voluntary cooperation between individuals and organizations to work for the good of all. A technocrat (no surprise for a man who made his fortune in mining), Hoover believed government could educate the public as to what was in the common good by researching statistical data and publicizing the results. In this way, government policy could pursue a solution that would increase efficiency and combine the self-interest of individuals with group altruism. Hoover believed Prohibition was an example of his principles in action. People, without coercion and of their own initiative, had discarded materialism to end an industry because the people believed it was the morally correct thing to do. Not only that, but Hoover believed this had helped to increase efficiency, especially in agriculture.
Though overall a positive biography that is more favorable to Hoover than most, Wilson does point out a few of Hoover's faults as a leader. She points out many times that his personality was more suited to working and advising behind the scenes, like when he was Secretary of Commerce in the cabinets of Presidents Harding and Coolidge, than to leading and being the center of national attention as President. She also mentions that even when his tactics failed to produce the intended results, he tended to remain true to them despite their ineffectiveness.
No biography of Hoover would be complete without a lengthy discussion of his actions as President during the Great Depression, which began in late October of 1929. While praising some, but not all, of Hoover's actions, Wilson attempts to clear up traditional misconceptions of Hoover's efforts as President to combat unemployment and depression. A prominent example is the belief that, compared to Franklin Roosevelt, Hoover was not active in spending money or using public works to try and create jobs. Wilson points out that in 1931, government spending to stimulate the economy was greater than in any of the next ten years except for 1934, 1935, and 1936. One traditional criticism Wilson does sustain was Hoover's approval of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 along with raising taxes to balance the federal budget. This hurt both international recovery, by making it more expensive for foreign nations to sell goods in the United States, and it hurt domestic recovery by taking money through taxes that could have been spent on goods, thereby stimulating companies to produce more goods and thereby create more jobs.
This book leaves the reader with some interesting questions to consider. First, was Hoover's philosophy of noncoercive, voluntary cooperation for the common good, informed by statistical analysis, practicable in the America that emerged from World War I? Or was it a dated philosophy that worked well in his rural Quaker upbringing of the 1890s but was unsuited to the industrialized and increasingly urbanized America of the 1920s and 1930s? Could his strategy of public education using statistical data have persuaded Americans that they should balance the desire for personal gain with that of selfless altruism for the benefit of all, given more time and no Great Depression to call all of Hoover’s ideas into question? Also, given that Wilson finds Hoover's efforts to combat the Great Depression as the best that possible at the time (other than his tax increases of 1931), what might have happened if voters had realized this and Hoover gained reelection in 1932? Could his strategies have worked against the Depression given more time, and how might they have been similar or different from what happened in Roosevelt's New Deal?
While it is always risky to predict what might have been, these are some of the questions this book leaves the reader considering after going to such great lengths to describe how Hoover used his philosophy to respond to the issues of his own time. Some of them, granted, are pointless, because Hoover had no realistic chance of reelection in 1932 no matter what his ideas were, but they retain a bit of relevance all the same because in the present political climate the debate still rages over the appropriate level of government action in the face of depression, the right balance between individual initiative and government activity to promote the common good, and so forth.
One advantage Wilson’s biography offers is that it is much shorter than many presidential biographies, her point being to examine Hoover’s progressive achievements and use that as the focus of the narrative. Readers wishing for a thorough examination of all facets of Hoover’s life should probably look elsewhere. For those, however, who want an introduction to Hoover’s work and ideas, this book provides an interesting, and at times convincing, counterbalance to the traditional narrative of Herbert Hoover’s political life.
Forever known, to his reputation’s detriment, as the man who presided over the onset of the Great Depression, most of us remember little else about the life and achievements of Herbert Hoover. The short biography Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive, by Joan Hoff Wilson, is an effort to show that Hoover was, in fact, a progressive statesman in some facets of his leadership. Wilson attempts to demonstrate the ways in which historical memory often misrepresents Hoover’s work as a public figure and to rehabilitate his image somewhat in this largely sympathetic book. Basing her arguments extensively on Hoover's personal philosophies as expressed in written documents and in action, she attempts to set the record a little straighter about this much-maligned politician.
Remembered by most Americans as the President who was unable to remedy the effects of the depression which began in 1929, Wilson shows that there is much more to the story of Herbert Hoover. Beginning with his Quaker upbringing in West Branch, Iowa, she follows the development of his personal philosophy regarding the relationship between society and government to explain his actions throughout his long and eventful life. The point Wilson emphasizes is Hoover's Progressive (capital P, representing the movement of the first two decades of the century) belief in a blend of individual initiative, equal opportunity for all, and cooperation for the good of the group. A few examples will illustrate this point. Even though his unfortunate decision to forcefully evict the Bonus Army strikes a tone of Hoover as a repressive figure, in normal circumstances he often opposed using the confrontational measures against strikers that, for instance, brought his predecessor Calvin Coolidge national fame. Hoover also favored collective bargaining in order to help distribute industrial profits more evenly, also largely out of place in the economically conservative 1920s, because he was convinced that economic inequality increased discontent and led to more radical ideologies such as socialism, which he abhorred. He also disagreed with the punitive nature of the Versailles Peace Treaty because of its coercive stance toward defeated Germany.
Drawing on his experience as coordinator of American relief efforts in Europe following the end of World War I, Hoover wanted to find a middle way between the radical (state socialism) and conservative (monopolistic capitalism) political ideologies he saw there. Fearing state socialism because it was coercive and stifled individual initiative, but also disliking monopoly capitalism for making wealth an end in itself, he developed a political philosophy that attempted to find a middle ground. His solution was to attempt a balance between self-interest and technological innovation that featured voluntary cooperation between individuals and organizations to work for the good of all. A technocrat (no surprise for a man who made his fortune in mining), Hoover believed government could educate the public as to what was in the common good by researching statistical data and publicizing the results. In this way, government policy could pursue a solution that would increase efficiency and combine the self-interest of individuals with group altruism. Hoover believed Prohibition was an example of his principles in action. People, without coercion and of their own initiative, had discarded materialism to end an industry because the people believed it was the morally correct thing to do. Not only that, but Hoover believed this had helped to increase efficiency, especially in agriculture.
Though overall a positive biography that is more favorable to Hoover than most, Wilson does point out a few of Hoover's faults as a leader. She points out many times that his personality was more suited to working and advising behind the scenes, like when he was Secretary of Commerce in the cabinets of Presidents Harding and Coolidge, than to leading and being the center of national attention as President. She also mentions that even when his tactics failed to produce the intended results, he tended to remain true to them despite their ineffectiveness.
No biography of Hoover would be complete without a lengthy discussion of his actions as President during the Great Depression, which began in late October of 1929. While praising some, but not all, of Hoover's actions, Wilson attempts to clear up traditional misconceptions of Hoover's efforts as President to combat unemployment and depression. A prominent example is the belief that, compared to Franklin Roosevelt, Hoover was not active in spending money or using public works to try and create jobs. Wilson points out that in 1931, government spending to stimulate the economy was greater than in any of the next ten years except for 1934, 1935, and 1936. One traditional criticism Wilson does sustain was Hoover's approval of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 along with raising taxes to balance the federal budget. This hurt both international recovery, by making it more expensive for foreign nations to sell goods in the United States, and it hurt domestic recovery by taking money through taxes that could have been spent on goods, thereby stimulating companies to produce more goods and thereby create more jobs.
This book leaves the reader with some interesting questions to consider. First, was Hoover's philosophy of noncoercive, voluntary cooperation for the common good, informed by statistical analysis, practicable in the America that emerged from World War I? Or was it a dated philosophy that worked well in his rural Quaker upbringing of the 1890s but was unsuited to the industrialized and increasingly urbanized America of the 1920s and 1930s? Could his strategy of public education using statistical data have persuaded Americans that they should balance the desire for personal gain with that of selfless altruism for the benefit of all, given more time and no Great Depression to call all of Hoover’s ideas into question? Also, given that Wilson finds Hoover's efforts to combat the Great Depression as the best that possible at the time (other than his tax increases of 1931), what might have happened if voters had realized this and Hoover gained reelection in 1932? Could his strategies have worked against the Depression given more time, and how might they have been similar or different from what happened in Roosevelt's New Deal?
While it is always risky to predict what might have been, these are some of the questions this book leaves the reader considering after going to such great lengths to describe how Hoover used his philosophy to respond to the issues of his own time. Some of them, granted, are pointless, because Hoover had no realistic chance of reelection in 1932 no matter what his ideas were, but they retain a bit of relevance all the same because in the present political climate the debate still rages over the appropriate level of government action in the face of depression, the right balance between individual initiative and government activity to promote the common good, and so forth.
One advantage Wilson’s biography offers is that it is much shorter than many presidential biographies, her point being to examine Hoover’s progressive achievements and use that as the focus of the narrative. Readers wishing for a thorough examination of all facets of Hoover’s life should probably look elsewhere. For those, however, who want an introduction to Hoover’s work and ideas, this book provides an interesting, and at times convincing, counterbalance to the traditional narrative of Herbert Hoover’s political life.
May 11, 2017
"He was born in the heartland of America, but for much of his life he was a stranger in it. Never more so than when he was its president." This is a memorable first line of a human, compelling, thoughtful portrait of a great man, incapable of being who the country needed him to be at the time they needed greatness most.
This is a deeply underrated biography of perhaps a misunderstood president, and makes a case that he was better than most people think.
This is a deeply underrated biography of perhaps a misunderstood president, and makes a case that he was better than most people think.
December 3, 2015
This book is far superior to the only other biography of Hoover that I've found, by Eugene Lyons. That was a hagiography, intentionally designed to showcase all that was good about Hoover to offset the decades of character assassination that the author felt Hoover had suffered. Understandable, but not very helpful when trying to learn the truth about a historical figure. This one is much more even-handed, and if the writing style isn't wonderful, that puts it on a par with most biographies. No one will ever accuse Wilson of being on a par with David McCullough. The only real complaint that I have is that the bio was apparently written just as new material was being released from Hoover's files, and it would probably have been greatly improved by waiting a few more years to allow the new material to be adequately cataloged and sorted. I understand that the author had been working on it for years and wanted to finally get her work published, but it seems to me that a bit more patience would have allowed more information to be available.
November 19, 2018
The normative analysis is weak and unpersuasive, but the rest is pretty good.
February 7, 2018
A little dry in spots, but educational and seemed to be well rounded portrait of a principled, intelligent, stubborn man.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews