Description
Book SynopsisHerbert Hoover rose from a rudimentary background to establish himself as a self-made millionaire and leading progressive reformer. Until the disaster that hit the nation in 1929, Hoover was known globally as the Great Humanitarian who had saved the lives of scores of millions of Europeans and Asians during and following WWI. As Secretary of Commerce through the twenties, the Great Engineer constructed, tooled, and fine-tuned the most powerful economy in the world. Hoover was celebrated as a representative product of America's rise to global domination and a formidable voice for progressivism who could finish the job in the White House. The Depression was Hoover's undoing, but historians recognize they must take account of his considerable contributions to the creation of twentieth-century America. As we learn more of that America, Hoover makes more sense.With due consideration of Hoover's accomplishments, one can further understand the construction of the American industrial and c
Trade ReviewEdward Agran has imaginatively and intriguingly rethought a figure that still remains easier to condemn than to understand. In this fluidly written work, Herbert Hoover both comes alive and fits into a larger cultural and political context. In the process, readers also get a wonderful opportunity to rethink the meaning of that most peculiar creature, the American Middle Class. -- Robert D. Johnston, University of Illinois at Chicago, author of
The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, OregonProfessor Agran’s avowed purpose is to reexamine the life and works of Herbert Hoover from the standpoint of a cultural historian. And in this rich and insightful meditation on Hoover’s activities, writings, and historical legacy, he shows in detail how this perspective can add to and broaden our understanding of the man’s role and place in American history. Of particular note and value are his strongly supported conclusions concerning Hoover’s vision of and prescriptions for realizing a progressive future, the central place in that future of a new, consumer-oriented, and expanding middle class, Hoover’s pariah status as a discredited huckster during the 1930s, and the central role of Hoover as a transitional, prophetic, and still relevant figure when viewed from the vantage point of our own times. -- Ellis W. Hawley, University of Iowa
Herbert Hoover, Edward Agran argues, offered Americans an expansive version of the progressives’ promise of material prosperity and spiritual fulfillment. If he had been luckier in the timing of his presidency, and if he had been able to express his vision in Agran’s poetic language instead of burying it in an engineer’s facts and figures, his reputation would stand much higher among his countrymen. Herbert Hoover and the Commodification of Middle-Class America makes the case for Hoover better than Hoover could make it for himself. -- Kendrick A. Clements, University of South Carolina
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Herbert Hoover and the Commodification of Middle-Class America Chapter 2: The Memoirs Chapter 3: American Individualism Chapter 4: Commerce Chapter 5: 1928 Chapter 6: A Heady Half-Year Chapter 7: Collapse Chapter 8: The ’32 Campaign Chapter 9: Sold Short
