Herbert Hoover in the White House

A general rule of thumb when looking at any Presidency is what kind of crisis did they have to face, and did they face it for the good of the country? Washington had to face the problems of a new nation that was struggling to figure out just who could vote and on what. Lincoln had the Civil War and all the personal strife that came with it, and Trump had the COVID-19 crisis.

All of these men, and many more besides, have had some major emergency that can define their presidency. In the terms of Herbert Hoover, he will always be tied to his failure to adequately combat the sudden economic downturn that began with the Stock Market Crash and was cemented by the Smoot-Hartley Tariff. In his book Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency, Charles Rappleye attempts to give a more balanced view of Hoover's legacy, showing both his successes and failures, during his term in office.

One of the standout features of this text would be Rappleye's ability to bring a balanced viewpoint to Hoover and his legacy. Hoover was a smart man who liked working with government institutions on a small scale, where the government was presented with a specific need, and Hoover saw to fill that need. He was also a part of the then liberal Republican Party and believed that the people should support the government, but the government should not support the people. This was a hallmark of the day, and Hoover followed this common train of thought for the time. He also was willing to bend in his beliefs to help those in need, as he wanted to use government funding to help farmers during the Dust Bowl. Rappleye gives us a positive view of Hoover, which few people may know of today.

But this is not a hagiography, as the introduction had me thinking. In this book, we also see that Hoover was not very friendly toward the press, and did not like his official public appearances. As odd as this may seem today, this was a president who did not like public speaking. This would not change as the Great Depression came into full swing, and people began to wonder when they would hear directly from their president about what was going to be done about the economic downturn. Then there was Herbert Hoover's inability to identify that this was an economic depression that was far beyond the scope of what his brand of government intervention could provide to those people who struggled to find jobs or feed their families.

With all this in mind, it was no wonder that Hoover was a one-term president and FDR was elected. FDR was far more easygoing with the press and even began to use the radio in earnest with his fireside chats. Roosevelt also swung government relief to the other end of the spectrum. Where Hoover had been conservative in terms of relief, Roosevelt spent money all over the place, and created a handful of committees every day, it seemed. This ensured the people that he was at least attempting to solve the problem, when compared to Hoover, who seemed chilly at best, uncaring at worst. The government spending may have angered people who were independent and wished for little government intervention, but for the people with no job, little food, and no place to live, these programs could have saved their life.

This book does contain some elements that I personally disliked. One was the writing style of Rappleye. He is someone who has an odd structure to his sentences. They usually have one or two more words than necessary, and odd word choices to boot. This was something that bothered me, and a reader may wish to be aware of it.

A second issue would be the way that the author describes the economics of the book, including, but not limited to the fights of the Federal Reserve, and the development of the different economic theories that Hoover had to work with of the day. While Rappleye does write these sections in an informed manner, they are not entertaining ones. Often, my eyes glazed over at the mere description of the Federal Reserve in the text. Readers should keep this in mind.

In the end, this is a book that, while at times boring and poorly edited, left me with the feeling of understanding. We understand today that a President should be made up of more than simply campaign promises and that we should question if he can weather the storm of a crisis, because if not, then the United States may just be caught up in its whirlwind.