What a fascinating story!

I only knew about Herbert Hoover as president and this book, in the almost 28 hours of narration, tells the complete story about how Mr. Hoover grew up in meager circumstances, losing both parents at an early age, and then transformed himself into a business power after gaining a degree in Geology at Stanford University.

The book also takes a fair position on how Mr. Hoover was castigated by the press and the Roosevelt administration and shows the great value he placed in public service, especially when it comes to caring for the "collateral damage" in war time, namely the starving women and children in Europe.

A great book that I will probably listen to again.

7 people found this helpful

Must Read

I have read a lot of bibliographies of US presidents and this is one of the best. Well written, well researched and incisive. Also, well narrated.

6 people found this helpful

A Great Humanitarian

I was curious about Herbert Hoover. I had grown up with my parents' opinion, that Hoover was the cause of the Great Depression. My dad referred to it as "the Hoover Depression", and if we were out of a necessity, he would say my mom was "Hooverizing".
Hoover was a great humanitarian, who was responsible for feeding millions of people in Europe after WWI. He also saved millions of children in the Soviet Union, when the crops failed. So many other times he organized food deliveries to starving people.
Hoover, like most people, was a complicated person. I personally do not believe he deserved the blame for the Great Depression nor the ill-treatment by FDR.
I highly recommend this book. My husband, who is not a history major, enjoyed it, too.

2 people found this helpful

Hoover

A man of times, He wasn't all bad for he was he was a good person. But the democrats kept trying to destroy all he had done by making him look bad and going after everyone in his cabinets as corrupt.

1 person found this helpful

Must read

After listening to this book .... twice ... I had to also purchase a copy. I had no idea about Hoover’s life story and enormous contributions to this country. Like many other, I assume, my ideas about him were tied to the depression and largely negative. Anyone concerned about the current world/ country economic situation and the US role in managing both growth and distribution should read this book.

1 person found this helpful

A new appreciation.

From a rather uninformed but negative opinion of Hoover this book has completely changed my appreciation for this complex and highly accomplished man.

1 person found this helpful

Hoover

I learned a great deal about this man who certainly has earned a better place in the history of America than he has received.

1 person found this helpful

Learned Interesting Things, but Bias Disappoints

I knew little about Hoover before reading this. For the first several chapters I figured that was because he led a pretty boring life. That turned out to be far from the case. Some of his stands on issues were surprising. Like his support for high estate taxes. From what I did know previously, I did think that he was probably unfairly blamed for the depression and unfairly blamed for not ending it. I have studied Roosevelt intensely and knew the New Deal was largely unsuccessful in ending the depression. But, that wasn't because many of the ideas were wrong. It was impossible to do enough. It was the massive government spending in wartime that finally ended it and ultimately led to one of the strongest periods of economic growth in our history. Anyway, as the book moved into the post-presidential years, the author lost his objectivity and that was disappointing. His dislike of Roosevelt and misreporting, at least by implication, was clear. Roosevelt had many faults but was not nearly so evil as described. Meanwhile, Hoover was given a pass for sniping from the sidelines without suggesting how he would have dealt with the Germans without the Russian alliance. The author also gave Hoover a pass for deifying Woodrow Wilson as a great proponent for democratic freedoms despite Wilson being the most autocratic president of the history of the United States. (c.f. The Sedition Act) Just a couple of examples among all the possible ones. Despite the flaws, the book is certainly worth reading and I'm happy I did.

1 person found this helpful

A Great Man and Misunderstood President

The accomplishments of this orphan who overcame his tragic childhood is not taught enough. It is my privilege to have sought out this book that is very well written and beautifully read. You will be glad you took the time to know this great and generous man.

Good Biography Of An Unloved President

It’s unfortunate, really quite unfair, that the general public only knows him for the Depression. He had quite the life: from orphan to tycoon, sharp businessman to life-saving philanthropist, leading progressive to grand old man of conservatism, and of course, President of the United States. What I wanted from this book was the whole life, and that’s what I got, his presidency taking up seven chapters of twenty-nine.

The man himself seems to have been relatively dull. Whyte paints a portrait of a man devoid of introspection: one part Babbitt, almost pathetically fixated on status and reputation; and one part can-do efficiency god, representing everything good in early-20th century Progressivism. His Belgian relief work, in particular, was incredible.

His tragedy is that he got it into his head to be President, despite being temperamentally unsuited to the job. He excelled as a technocrat, and there it ended. I can easily imagine him, sans Presidency, becoming a respected crisis-manager and administrator. Instead, well…

I felt there was an egomania to Hoover that I think Whyte understated. He’s out of the country for decades, gets famous for foreign charity, comes back and within a few years makes a go at the presidency? Despite disdaining actual politics? I see this tendency as much as any honest moral stance being behind carping at Roosevelt, or his quixotic attempts get the Republican nomination in 1936 and 1940.

His Presidency is, of course, one of the most interesting parts of the book (though the Belgian Relief is up there). I felt that Whyte was a bit pro-Hoover, but also that there is a somewhere a revisionist view well worth reading. It’s not exactly common knowledge how much FDR’s policies came from his predecessor. Also, it never occurred to me that Hoover had to court the Prohibition diehards in his reelection, as if he wasn’t screwed enough without that. Whyte interestingly downplays the Bonus Army episode. I’ve heard that described as a typically tone-deaf blunder. Apparently, the newspapers, the smart set, who condemn him now, said nothing then. I can’t say I’m surprised.

He became more likable in his autumn years. The last chapter, on his legacy, is particularly good. It’s hard for me to deny that a good number of the things he warned about seem more sensible and more reasonable now, than they would have when he died.

The reading is good, well suited to the work.