Search results for ""author george h. nash""

Herbert Hoover's "magnum opus"—at last published nearly fifty years after its completion—offers a revisionist reexamination of World War II and its cold war aftermath and a sweeping indictment of the "lost statesmanship" of Franklin Roosevelt. Hoover offers his frank evaluation of Roosevelt's foreign policies before Pearl Harbor and policies during the war, as well as an examination of the war's consequences, including the expansion of the Soviet empire at war's end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists.

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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.

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Herbert Hoover arrived at Stanford in 1891, neither wealthy nor from a distinquished family, and was admitted on the condition that he become "proficient" in English. From that inauspicious beginning came the long and mutually rewarding relationship between Herbert Hoover and his alma mater, Stanford University. During his lifetime Hoover followed several careers: engineer, philanthropist, author, statesman, and president of the United States.George H. Nash points out that Stanford gave Hoover his first chance, and he spent much of his life repaying that debt. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, the Student Union, the Food Research Institute, the Lou Henry Hoover House, and the Graduate School of Business were direct results of his involvement as a Stanford trustee, his fundraising ability, and his personal philanthropy.Although Hoover in later years was often at odds with both the faculty and administration, Nash's research reveals the enduring ties that bound the man and his university together. Stanford president David Starr Jordan said at Hoover's commencement that men and women "are judged by achievement, not by dreams." Hoover shared that view of life, and Stanford University today is itself part of Herbert Hoover's living legacy of achievement.

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In late 1921, then secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover decided to distill from his experiences a coherent understanding of the American experiment he cherished. The result was the 1922 book American Individualism. In it, Hoover expounded and vigorously defended what has come to be called American exceptionalism: the set of beliefs and values that still makes America unique. He argued that America can make steady, sure progress if we preserve our individualism, preserve and stimulate the initiative of our people, insist on and maintain the safeguards to equality of opportunity, and honor service as a part of our national character. American Individualism asserts that equal opportunity for individuals to develop their abilities is ""the sole source of progress"" and the fundamental impulse behind American civilization for three—now four—centuries. More than ninety years have passed since this book was first published; it is clear, in retrospect, that the volume was partly motivated by the political controversies of the time. But American Individualism is not simply a product of a dim and receding past. To a considerable degree the ideological battles of Hoover's era are the battles of our own, and the interpretations we make of our past—particularly the years between 1921 and 1933—will mold our perspective on the crises of the present.

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