Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency

Rappleye (Sons of Providence) quickly insists he's not out to get Herbert Hoover (1874–1964); he simply wants to cut through the partisan narratives about the 31st president and to understand the man at the helm during the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. Orphaned as a boy, Hoover ascended through a hardscrabble childhood to the peak of power, riding a wave of optimism and prosperity to a landslide election in 1928. Seven months later the stock market cratered, unemployment spiraled, and a struggle to stave off societal catastrophe ensued. Hoover's principled opposition to government aid—paired with a reputation for being aloof, a "gregarious hermit," and "constitutionally gloomy"—alienated him from the public, the press, and many fellow politicians. Lacking the charisma of his rival Franklin Roosevelt, who courted voters in 1932 with empathy and on-the-ground awareness of the zeitgeist, Hoover was booted from office and, unjustly, into infamy. Rappleye makes a lively guide through Hoover's troubled term of 1929–33; in focused prose he cross-examines an extensive historical record of Hoover and his contemporaries, calling baloney when appropriate and giving credit when due. Between some economy-speak, a clear if sometimes unflattering portrait of Hoover emerges.