Few presidents have been subjected to such a wide range of
interpretation as has Herbert Hoover, from hero to villain, from
genius to naif. Fausold meets the daunting challenge of assessing
the Hoover presidency by focusing on the to most basic questions:
first, whether the Hoover presidency advanced the country toward
the goals outlined in his Inaugural Address--justice, ordered
liberty, equality of opportunity, individual initiative, freedom of
opinion, integrity in government, peace, growth of religious
spirit, and strengthening of the home--and, second, whether Hoover
attacked the causes of the depression--international, cyclical,
sectoral, fiscal, and monetary.
Making use of extensive primary sources beyond the Hoover
Library, Fausold argues that Herbert Hoover was what Walter
Lippmann said a president should be, "a custodian of a nation's
ideals," and that Hoover fought the causes of the depression with
vigor and imagination. Nevertheless, on election day in 1932,
Hoover was turned out of office in a landslide, carrying only six
eastern states.
From his defeat of Alfred E. Smith in 1928 to his trouncing by
FDR four years later, Hoover's presidential years are detailed
here: the stock-market crash, which happened eight months after
Hoover took office; the ever-deepening depression; tariff
legislation; Hoover's farm policy and foreign policy; and his
pursuit of the twin goals of prosperity and freedom. This volume
discusses in detail the relationship of the Hoover presidency to
capital and labor, showing that Hoover's farm policies provide the
best illustration of his corporatist formulas. Fausold reverses
simplistic conclusions about the Stimson Doctrine, arguing that
Hoover's Quaker pacifism, the Great Depression, and the
forcefulness of Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson affected
Hoover's foreign policy far less than has been presumed. Finally,
Fausold details the disastrous events of the 1932 reelection
campaign, punctuated by the march of the Bonus Army on Washington
and culminating in Hoover's decisive defeat.
Fausold views the Hoover presidency as the logical transition
from progressivism to the New Deal, calling it both the last of the
old and the first of the new presidencies. The important question
about Hoover, Fausold argues, is not why the people refused to
reelect him, but why the reversal of his nation's image of him was
so overwhelming and has been so long-lasting. Despite three
arguments in defense of the administration--that its goals and
antidepression efforts were in many respects without precedent;
that it was surely as much a failure of American capital as of
presidential leadership; and that probably no American elected in
1928 could have survived the nation's greatest depression--Fausold
points to two factors that were paramount in spelling the
misfortunes of Hoover's presidency: his unalterable commitment to
ordered freedom as a canopy for solutions to the depression, and
his firm rejection of any kind of an accommodation with the New
Deal."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
