The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath (Hoover Institution Press Publication (Hardcover)) (Volume 641) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0817916741 ISBN 13: 9780817916749

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press, 2013

Synopsis

Covering an eventful period in Herbert Hoover’s career—and, more specifically, his life as a political pugilist from 1933 to 1955—this previously unknown memoir was composed and revised by the 31st president during the 1940s and 1950s—and then, surprisingly, set aside. This work recounts Hoover’s family life after March 4, 1933, his myriad philanthropic interests, and, most of all, his unrelenting “crusade against collectivism” in American life. Aside from its often feisty account of Hoover’s political activities during the Roosevelt and Truman eras, and its window on Hoover’s private life and campaigns for good causes, The Crusade Years invites readers to reflect on the factors that made his extraordinarily fruitful postpresidential years possible. The pages of this memoir recount the story of Hoover’s later life, his abiding political philosophy, and his vision of the nation that gave him the opportunity for service. This is, in short, a remarkable saga told in the former president’s own words and in his own way that will appeal as much to professional historians and political scientists as it will lay readers interested in history.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Herbert Hoover lived a phenomenally productive life, including more than half a century in one form or another of public service. It was a record that in sheer scope and duration may be without parallel in American history. Although he left the presidency in 1933 a virtual pariah, maligned and hated like no other American in his lifetime, he slowly rose from the ashes of his political downfall. He shone brightly through the final phase of his career as a former president. For the next thirty-one-and-one-half years, in fair political weather and foul, the former chief executive became, in his self-image, a crusader: a tireless and visible castigator of the dominant political trends of his day. He behaved as a committed ideological warrior more persistently and more fervently than any other former president in our history. That eventful period of his life is the main subject of The Crusade Years.

This volume is the “missing link” in Hoover’s memoirs: the final brick in a literary edifice that he began to build nearly seventy-five years ago. In its pages we learn the story of his later life, of his abiding political philosophy, and of his vision of the land of liberty that gave him the opportunity for service. But perhaps the most charming feature of this book is Hoover’s depiction of his private life after his presidency—a side of his existence that he rarely permitted the world to observe. In the first part of this volume readers will discover tender reminiscences of Hoover’s wife and sons, his passion for fishing, and his membership in the Bohemian Club that gave him surcease from “dull care” for more than fifty years. In these pages we also find amusing vignettes of his travels by auto in the American West in the 1930s, including the times the former president of the United States was stopped for speeding. In The Crusade Years we catch a glimpse of Hoover at peace as well as at “war.” It is a remarkable saga told in his own words, his way.

From the Back Cover:

A side of Herbert Hoover the world was rarely permitted to see 

Covering an eventful period in Herbert Hoover’s career—and, more specifically, his life as a political pugilist from 1933 to 1955—The Crusade Years is a previously unknown memoir that Hoover composed and revised during the 1940s and 1950s—and then, surprisingly, set aside. A parallel volume to Hoover’s Freedom Betrayed, this work recounts Hoover’s family life after March 4, 1933, his myriad philanthropic interests, and, most of all, his unrelenting “crusade against collectivism” in American life.

Aside from its often feisty account of Hoover’s political activities during the Roosevelt/Truman era, and its window on Hoover’s private life and campaigns for good causes, The Crusade Years invites us to reflect on the factors that made possible his extraordinarily fruitful postpresidential years. As least as much as Theodore Roosevelt, he came to personify the activist former president; some historians have even argued that he invented it.

In this realm of exertion, as in so many others, Herbert Hoover was no ordinary man. Of all the individuals who have served as president of the United States, none has ever written a set of memoirs as prodigious as his. Rescued from obscurity, this nearly forgotten manuscript is published here—and its contents made available to scholars—for the first time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0817916741
• ISBN 13: 9780817916749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 568
• Editor: Nash George H.