DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator Richard Ferrone adds a steady voice to this provocative biography of the 31st president of the United States. Unwilling to gloss over his deficiencies or elevate his successes to legendary status, the writer and narrator enable the listener to appreciate that timing is everything. Ferrone delivers the tone and pace of the chronicler as Hoover’s roller coaster of a life unfolds. His ability to encapsulate the anger and excitedness, the euphoria and deep sadness of a life spent in service keeps the listener wanting to know more about this underrated historical figure. Ferrone resurrects an extraordinary life such that audiophiles will be looking for more. T.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
08/07/2017
Canadian journalist Whyte (The Uncrowned King) delivers a clear-eyed, sympathetic portrayal of the American president best remembered for his inability to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Whyte considers this limited view unfair; after all, Hoover lived for 90 years and occupied the White House for only four. Therefore, to make sense of this “man of the times” requires an examination of his entire life. Raised a Quaker, Hoover rejected the sect’s faith component but embraced its ethics of hard work, sense of duty to neighbors and community, and concern for the troubles of others. Yet in pursuit of a successful livelihood and upward social mobility, he sometimes skirted the boundaries of fairness and honesty. Whyte doesn’t shy away from these seedier aspects of Hoover’s life, but nor is he judgmental. The story moves at a brisk pace, through the early years of Hoover’s climb in the business world to his first taste of public service with humanitarian work during WWI to his career with the federal government, including the presidency. With adept explanations of the Depression’s complexities and a refreshing sense of objectivity regarding Hoover’s approach to combatting it, Whyte portrays a figure to be neither pitied nor reviled, but better understood. Photos. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
An exemplary biography—exhaustively researched, fair-minded and easy to read. It can nestle on the same shelf as David McCullough’s Truman, a high compliment indeed.”—Edward Kosner, The Wall Street Journal
“Outstanding…. Whyte makes a convincing case for the reassessment of our 31st president…. This well organized, thoroughly researched, and smoothly written biography persuasively demonstrates that its subject’s place in history should be elevated far beyond its current status.” —Talmage Boston, Washington Independent Review of Books
“Whyte’s account is the most full-fleshed and three-dimensional Hoover readers have yet encountered” —Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor
“Whyte details how Hoover was up against worldwide economic forces that he had no way of controlling and points out that the hard times continued long into Roosevelt’s presidency. Just as interesting, however, are Whyte’s accounts of Hoover’s early life, from his rise from orphanhood to world-traveling problem solver, and his post-presidency attempt to restore his image and regain his place among the 20th century’s most admired people.” —Keith Herrell, BookPage
"Summons us to see Hoover as a human personality, more than just a walking embodiment of Great Depression studies.... In the unceasing ideological quarrying of the American past, this great man and execrated president has proven himself useful again. To understand Hoover’s life, career, and his legacy in full, this rich new biography will certainly prove indispensable.” —David Frum, The Atlantic
"Monumental.... Important, and irresistibly interesting.... Whyte serves as a learned but inviting tour guide to this extraordinary life, bringing a fresh eye and fresh perspective.... [He] shows us a man of impatience, insensitivity and impolitic behaviour, though balanced with great confidence and competence.... Over all, the Hoover story—and the Whyte book—is a distinctly American tale: persistence, ambition, grand plans (all covered with a shellac wash of overweening pride and overwhelming arrogance), played out over five continents and marked by three economic crises. The result is an astonishing alchemy of soaring achievement and deep disappointment." —David Shribman, Toronto Globe and Mail
"Hoover was doomed to be remembered as the man who was too rigidly conservative to react adeptly to the Depression, as the hapless foil to the great Franklin Roosevelt, and as the politician who managed to turn a Republican country into a Democratic one…. Hoover...helpfully lays out a long and copious résumé that doesn’t fit on this stamp of dismissal." —Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
“[A] comprehensive and accessible study…. Whyte’s work contextualizes Hoover as a man of his times…. In seeking to understand rather than judge Hoover throughout the entire trajectory of his life, Whyte succeeds in creating a positive overview of the leader’s long prepresidential service.” —Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library Journal
“A well-executed reexamination of the character and career of a gifted, unjustly maligned leader.… In this comprehensive and generally sympathetic biography, Whyte reminds us that both before and after his single term as president, Hoover compiled a record of extraordinary achievement…. Whyte stresses Hoover’s remarkable drive and even ruthlessness, qualities he brought to public service during WWI when he organized crucial food-relief efforts throughout Europe.” —Jay Freeman, Booklist
“A great biography…. Hoover lived a life of adventure and accomplishment, and Whyte captures that spirit in engaging, readable prose…. Whyte doesn’t gloss over Hoover’s flaws, nor his failed efforts to right the economy during the Depression. But he makes it clear that Hoover’s presidency is not the only—or best—measure of his service to his country and world.” —Rob Cline, The Gazette (IA)
"A thoughtful resurrection of a brilliant man who, aside from the Founding Fathers, did more good before taking office than any other president in American history." —Kirkus (starred review)
"A clear-eyed, sympathetic portrayal of the American president best remembered for his inability to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression.... [He] doesn’t shy away from [the] seedier aspects of Hoover’s life, but nor is he judgmental.... With adept explanations of the Depression's complexities and a refreshing sense of objectivity regarding Hoover's approach to combatting it, Whyte portrays a figure to be neither pitied nor reviled, but better understood." —Publishers Weekly
"Often ranked as one of our worst presidents—his very name evokes Depression-era shantytowns—Hoover gets a reconsideration here that sweeps over his entire career… [Whyte] charts Hoover's rise from childhood poverty to business mega-success, then reminds us of Hoover’s large-scale humanitarian works during World War I and after the 1927 Mississippi floods and his efforts (however thankless) to combat the Great Depression. And he was tasked by President Harry Truman himself with aiding European refugees after World War II, which not everyone knows. Get reading." —Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, "Barbara’s Picks"
Library Journal
10/01/2017
Whyte (The Uncrowned King) emphasizes the challenges presented by the contradictory personality of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) in this comprehensive and accessible study. The author provides details about Hoover's experiences as an orphan who became a self-made millionaire, commerce secretary, director of the U.S. Food Administration, spokesman for progressive efficiency before his White House years and for the new anti-Communist, noninterventionist, conservatism thereafter. Similar to Glen Jeansonne's Herbert Hoover, Whyte's work contextualizes Hoover as a man of his times, underscoring that he left the White House scandal-free and with a better understanding than his successor Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Great Depression required concerted international, rather than primarily domestic solutions. Whyte explains how supporters of the New Deal took credit for programs that Hoover, albeit tentatively, began for bank and agricultural relief, industrial refinancing, and federal aid to local governments. Sources from nationwide newspapers and the written observations of Hoover's colleagues supplement the politician's largely nonintrospective, although voluminous writings, which were motivated by his lone political defeat. VERDICT In seeking to understand rather than judge Hoover throughout the entire trajectory of his life, Whyte succeeds in creating a positive overview of the leader's long prepresidential service. [See Prepub Alert, 4/17/17.]—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC
DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator Richard Ferrone adds a steady voice to this provocative biography of the 31st president of the United States. Unwilling to gloss over his deficiencies or elevate his successes to legendary status, the writer and narrator enable the listener to appreciate that timing is everything. Ferrone delivers the tone and pace of the chronicler as Hoover’s roller coaster of a life unfolds. His ability to encapsulate the anger and excitedness, the euphoria and deep sadness of a life spent in service keeps the listener wanting to know more about this underrated historical figure. Ferrone resurrects an extraordinary life such that audiophiles will be looking for more. T.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-07-17
A biography of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) meant "to spring [him] from the Depression and present him in another context, that of his full life."Hoover was president for four unhappy years but was an extraordinary figure for more than 70. In this fat, intensely researched, mostly admiring biography, National Post founding editor Whyte (The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst, 2009) makes a convincing case for his rehabilitation and succeeds in providing "a faithful portrait of the man in his times." After graduating from Stanford, he won rapid promotion and wealth managing mines in Australia and China with brilliant if ruthless efficiency and then resigned to prosper as an independent consultant. Soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, it was obvious that the Belgians, conquered by Germany, were starving. In one of the greatest individual humanitarian acts in history, Hoover created an immense, successful food relief effort that required prodigious diplomatic, financial, and organizational skills. It also made him world famous. Appointed secretary of commerce, he was the most dynamic government figure of the 1920s and easily won the presidency in 1928. Everyone knows what happened then. Whyte dismisses the traditional view that Hoover failed to address the Depression. He expanded public works and backed programs such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, later taken up by the New Deal. Sadly, he opposed direct government relief, insisting that states and philanthropies could handle it. A lack of charisma and dour personality gave him an undeserved reputation for heartlessness. He took defeat in 1932 bitterly and hated the New Deal. Whyte concludes that Hoover's vision of a "bottom-up America rooted in individual freedom, public service, and strong self-sufficient communities, encouraged by a limited federal government, seemed by his death a relic of another era," yet it has come back into fashion. A thoughtful resurrection of a brilliant man who, aside from the Founding Fathers, did more good before taking office than any other president in American history.
