August 7, 2017
Canadian journalist Whyte (The Uncrowned King) delivers a clear-eyed, sympathetic portrayal of the American president best remembered for his inability to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Whyte considers this limited view unfair; after all, Hoover lived for 90 years and occupied the White House for only four. Therefore, to make sense of this “man of the times” requires an examination of his entire life. Raised a Quaker, Hoover rejected the sect’s faith component but embraced its ethics of hard work, sense of duty to neighbors and community, and concern for the troubles of others. Yet in pursuit of a successful livelihood and upward social mobility, he sometimes skirted the boundaries of fairness and honesty. Whyte doesn’t shy away from these seedier aspects of Hoover’s life, but nor is he judgmental. The story moves at a brisk pace, through the early years of Hoover’s climb in the business world to his first taste of public service with humanitarian work during WWI to his career with the federal government, including the presidency. With adept explanations of the Depression’s complexities and a refreshing sense of objectivity regarding Hoover’s approach to combatting it, Whyte portrays a figure to be neither pitied nor reviled, but better understood. Photos. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.
Starred review from August 1, 2017
A biography of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) meant "to spring [him] from the Depression and present him in another context, that of his full life."Hoover was president for four unhappy years but was an extraordinary figure for more than 70. In this fat, intensely researched, mostly admiring biography, National Post founding editor Whyte (The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst, 2009) makes a convincing case for his rehabilitation and succeeds in providing "a faithful portrait of the man in his times." After graduating from Stanford, he won rapid promotion and wealth managing mines in Australia and China with brilliant if ruthless efficiency and then resigned to prosper as an independent consultant. Soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, it was obvious that the Belgians, conquered by Germany, were starving. In one of the greatest individual humanitarian acts in history, Hoover created an immense, successful food relief effort that required prodigious diplomatic, financial, and organizational skills. It also made him world famous. Appointed secretary of commerce, he was the most dynamic government figure of the 1920s and easily won the presidency in 1928. Everyone knows what happened then. Whyte dismisses the traditional view that Hoover failed to address the Depression. He expanded public works and backed programs such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, later taken up by the New Deal. Sadly, he opposed direct government relief, insisting that states and philanthropies could handle it. A lack of charisma and dour personality gave him an undeserved reputation for heartlessness. He took defeat in 1932 bitterly and hated the New Deal. Whyte concludes that Hoover's vision of a "bottom-up America rooted in individual freedom, public service, and strong self-sufficient communities, encouraged by a limited federal government, seemed by his death a relic of another era," yet it has come back into fashion. A thoughtful resurrection of a brilliant man who, aside from the Founding Fathers, did more good before taking office than any other president in American history.
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September 1, 2017
As the thirty-first president, Herbert Hoover presided over the stock-market crash and the start of the subsequent Great Depression, and for decades, politicians ran against Hoover economics. In this comprehensive and generally sympathetic biography, Whyte reminds us that both before and after his single term as president, Hoover compiled a record of extraordinary achievement. Born and orphaned in Iowa, he trained as a geologist at Stanford University, then prospected and organized mining operations around the world and became a millionaire before he reached 40. Whyte stresses Hoover's remarkable drive and even ruthlessness, qualities he brought to public service during WWI when he organized crucial food-relief efforts throughout Europe. As president, Hoover reacted to the onset of the Depression with some sound efforts to stabilize the plunging economy, but he failed to grasp the optics of some of his activities and was unfairly characterized as uncaring. After his swamping by Roosevelt in 1932, Hoover continued to promote conservative positions and resumed food-relief efforts after WWII. Whyte offers a well-executed reexamination of the character and career of a gifted, unjustly maligned leader.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
October 1, 2017
Whyte (The Uncrowned King) emphasizes the challenges presented by the contradictory personality of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) in this comprehensive and accessible study. The author provides details about Hoover's experiences as an orphan who became a self-made millionaire, commerce secretary, director of the U.S. Food Administration, spokesman for progressive efficiency before his White House years and for the new anti-Communist, noninterventionist, conservatism thereafter. Similar to Glen Jeansonne's Herbert Hoover, Whyte's work contextualizes Hoover as a man of his times, underscoring that he left the White House scandal-free and with a better understanding than his successor Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Great Depression required concerted international, rather than primarily domestic solutions. Whyte explains how supporters of the New Deal took credit for programs that Hoover, albeit tentatively, began for bank and agricultural relief, industrial refinancing, and federal aid to local governments. Sources from nationwide newspapers and the written observations of Hoover's colleagues supplement the politician's largely nonintrospective, although voluminous writings, which were motivated by his lone political defeat. VERDICT In seeking to understand rather than judge Hoover throughout the entire trajectory of his life, Whyte succeeds in creating a positive overview of the leader's long prepresidential service. [See Prepub Alert, 4/17/17.]--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 15, 2017
Often ranked as one of our worst presidents, Herbert Hoover gets reconsideration from award-winning Canadian author Whyte (The Uncrowned King). Whyte charts Hoover's rise from childhood poverty to business mega-success, then reminds us of Hoover's large-scale humanitarian works during World War I and after the 1927 Mississippi floods, his efforts (however thankless) to combat the Great Depression, and his work aiding European refugees after World War II.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.