Review: "Hoover - An Extraordinary Life In Extraordinary Times" By Kenneth Whyte

Here at Letterjoy we read a lot of biographies and historical reference books. We informally review a few of our favorites on our blog for the benefit of our readers.

For most of my life, I've associated Herbert Hoover with a single event: The Great Depression. In school, that's about all Hoover's name came up for, and mostly in the context of his failures - the bonus army, "Hoovervilles". Beyond that, I knew that Hoover was somehow associated with Stanford University. I knew little else.

I don't think I'm alone in that understanding of the 31st president. Until I read Kenneth Whyte's "Hoover - An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times", I never realized just how tragic that one-note narrative is. 

Herbert Hoover's story began well before the Great Depression. He was a frontier Quaker, a young orphan, a calculating student politician at Stanford, and a brilliant and cold mining executive. He was an American ex-pat in China during the Boxer Rebellion and a powerful humanitarian who saved millions of lives during World War I. And that's before he entered politics.

Whyte very consciously dodges "the Great Depression" and Hoover's presidency for the first half of the book. He focuses on those earlier chapters of Hoover's life, and how they shaped his ideology, personality, and style of work. Whyte tells Hoover's story chronologically so that when he does finally get into discussions of Hoover's presidency, he has already firmly established who Hoover is.

Whyte's telling of the depression is one of a series of minor triumphs, false hopes, and political disputes. He details Hoover's success in lobbying for a freeze on wartime debt repayment and in bringing labor leaders and businesses together to prevent work stoppages. He also details how Hoover's political experience doomed the president in working with Congress as the economic slowdown persisted. Whyte vividly details how parochialism, partisanship, personality, and institutional constraints doomed Hoover's agenda in Congress.

Whyte also poses an interesting question of what role the Democratic National Committee and (candidate/president-elect) Franklin D. Roosevelt had in dooming Hoover's legacy. The DNC during the election of 1932 was one of the first modern and consistently engaged national political organizations. The DNC's public relations campaign against Hoover during 1932 was remarkably successful and has been replicated in some form by every major political organization since.

Whyte portrayal of Hoover isn't all saintly. Throughout the book, Whyte acknowledges the role that ego and past trauma play in Hoover's actions, and the toll that his constant work exacts on his family. Whyte also highlights some of Hoover's questionable actions in the mining industry, his zeal for workplace and campus politics, and how his personal failings contributed to some of his career failings. The chronologically presented failures and successes offer a compelling and detailed account of a life that deserves more mention than it gets. 

Short Review: If you're interested in 20th-century American politics, World War I, the Great Depression, or the institution of the presidency, you should give it a read.

This review reflects the opinion of Michael Sitver and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Letterjoy.