Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover

“The American System”: Herbert Hoover, the Associative State, and Broadcast Commercialism

“…Hoover's critics claim that, while he was secretary of commerce and while he was president, the federal government did not attempt to oversee or supervise any aspect of the unstable sectors of the economy during the 1920s and early 1930s (Best 1971; Hamilton 1991; Hoff Wilson 1975; Shlaes 2007; Walch 2003). However, historians have labeled the decade of the 1920s the “New Era” because it bridged the unbridled capitalism of the late nineteenth century and the regulatory policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal (Shlaes 2007, 34).…”

“…Whether critical or lauding of Herbert Hoover's pre‐presidential tenure at the Department of Commerce, historians have generally recognized a dichotomy in his philosophies and practices. Joan Hoff Wilson's Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (1975, 5‐11, 14‐15, 278‐81) and Timothy Walch's Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover (2003, 11‐19, 51‐57, 63‐66) noted that Hoover's humanitarian efforts in Europe during and after World War I illustrated his ability to coordinate and direct relief projects, though they both acknowledged Hoover's massive inability to translate his international feats to U.S. domestic issues. Gary Best's The Politics of American Individualism; Herbert Hoover in Transition, 1918‐1921 (1971, 79‐84) explained Hoover's ideology using location and time—that is, Hoover utilized his engineering and coordination skills during the war crisis but returned home to a society seeking “normalcy,” which encouraged him to follow a rigid ideology.…”