A Book Review of Herbert Hoover's, "American Individualism"

Date Published: November 12, 2024

The following is a review of the book, "American Individualism" written by Herbert Hoover and published in 1922 by Doubleday, Page & Company. It was a book of only 72 pages and six chapters: "American Individualism," "Philosophic Grounds," "Spiritual Phases," "Economic Phases," "Political Phases," and "The Future."

The introduction to this book, "American Individualism" by Herbert Hoover was first published by “World’s Work” in April 1922 and was part of a speech Herbert Hoover intended to deliver as the U. S. Secretary of Commerce at an unidentified American university. Evidently this article, over the several decades of its appearance in print, was modified or updated several times. The version of Herbert Hoover's "American Individualism" article used as the introductory chapter in the book "American Industrialism" that is reviewed on this page is available in its entirety on this website: [here].

 ​A Review of “American Individualism” by Herbert Hoover

• Reviews of the Day: 1922 through 1947
•  Selected Quotes from “American Individualism” by Herbert Hoover
• This Author’s Thoughts on “American Individualism” by Herbert Hoover

Reviews of the Day: 1922 through 1947

“Mr. Hoover’s [American Individualism] article is an evaluation of the central element of what constitutes Americanism. It is so strongly and clearly expressed that it carries a refreshing and even inspirational quality—in contrast with much of the depressing literature that gets itself into print. …

"Today, our need is not for a way out but a way forward …

​"Mr. Hoover’s article as a whole is a patriotic expression of the spirit of Americanism and of faith in our institutions.”

“Individualism and Americanism,” The Indianapolis Star, March 21, 1922

“Rich in epigram and crammed full of good old-fashioned horse sense is Herbert Hoover’s ‘American Individualism.’ … Hoover’s book is well written and it abounds in sound reasoning and its language is couched in such a way that it is well within the reach of all.”

“Hoover,” The Oakland Tribune, January 7, 1923

“ ‘American Individualism’ was at once a thoughtful analysis and a moving plea. … Mr. Hoover understood the philosophy of capitalism and the distinction between it and collectivism.”

“Hoover’s Return,” Mark Sullivan, Tampa Bay Times, December 27, 1947

 Selected Quotes from “American Individualism” by Herbert Hoover

-     Herbert Hoover: The Five Characteristics of American Individualism

“Our individualism differs from all others because it embraces these great ideals:
​

1. That while we build our society upon the attainment of the individual, we shall safeguard to every individual an equality of opportunity to take that position in the community to which their intelligence, character, ability, and ambition entitle them;
   
   
2. That we keep the social solution free from frozen strata of classes;
   
   
3. That we shall stimulate effort of each individual to achievement;
   
   
4. That through an enlarging sense of responsibility and understanding we shall assist them to this attainment;
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5. Each individual—in turn—must stand up to the emery wheel of competition.”​

-     Herbert Hoover: On Social Justice and a Responsibility to Others

“Social injustice is the destruction of justice itself.
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“We have learned that the impulse to production can only be maintained at a high pitch if there is a fair division of the product. We have learned that fair division can only be obtained by certain restrictions on the strong and the dominant. … We have gone even further in the 20th Century with the embracement of the necessity of a greater and broader sense of service and responsibility to others as a part of individualism.”

-     Herbert Hoover: On the Philosophy of American Individualism

“On the philosophic side we can agree at once that intelligence, character, courage, and the divine spark of the human soul are alone the property of individuals. These do not lie in agreements, in organizations, in institutions, in masses, or in groups. They abide alone in the individual mind and heart. …
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“These impulses are made of the varied forces of original instincts, motives, and acquired desires. Many of these are destructive and must be restrained through moral leadership and authority of the law and be eliminated finally … by education.”

-     Herbert Hoover: On the Privilege and Rising From the Bottom 

“This guarding of our individualism against stratification [establishing classes in society] insists not only in preserving in the social solution an equal opportunity for the able and ambitious to rise from the bottom; it also insists that the sons and daughters of the successful shall not by any mere right of birth or favor continue to occupy their fathers’ or mothers’ places of power against the rise of a new generation coming up from the bottom.”​

This Author’s Thoughts on “American Individualism” by Herbert Hoover

This is the third book I have read of Herbert Hoover’s and the third book of his that I whole heartedly recommend to readers. From reading the quotes above, it would be hard to believe that this former President of the United States was classified as a “conservative” in his day as he writes of controlling the stratification of society—the class structure, his disdain of privilege, and the restraining of either economic or political power if it inherently fails to yield a service to humanity.

His five tenets of American Individualism—the first excerpt from the book that is highlighted above, should be printed and distributed in business work areas with debate encouraged and monitored by management and chief executive officers. As he wrote in one of the quotes above education is one of the means to “finally eliminate” some of the destructive impulses left over from man’s evolution from primate.

At the mention of Herbert Hoover’s name in the 21st Century, too many individuals scoff and harrumph, and then refuse to listen. They categorize him easily: The U. S. President who “failed during the Great Depression.”

Historians, to a great degree, have reduced this great individual’s legacy to a single point in time and a single catastrophic economic event, without providing mitigating circumstances or in-depth consideration of all that this man accomplished in his lifetime for the people and policies of the United States, and for the survivors of World War I—mostly women and children, in Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe [See Footnote #1].

Calumny is “the making of false and defamatory statements about an individual in order to damage that individual’s reputation.” ​

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Although reducing an individual such as Herbert Hoover to a historic soundbite may not rise to the level of calumny, it does suggest the over-reliance of too many history instructors on short-shrift platitudes that misrepresent an individual’s lifetime of service. Platitudes which disregard an individuals’ greatest contributions to humanity and present the entirety of a public life in an abridged, simplistic, and unbalanced manner are—at a minimum—most narrowing and misrepresentative.

Why would “history” remember Herbert Hoover in this way?

What were the circumstances of the day?
​
Who were his enemies?

-     Mark Sullivan, an Early 20th Century Journalist and Historian’s Perspective on Herbert Hoover

Mark Sullivan answered these questions in December 1947.

​He wrote about Herbert Hoover who, through his writing, speeches, and political insights, confronted those “social systems” … those “ism’s of the day” such as socialism, communism and fascism that had been challenging the United States of America since World War I.

For them, the Great Depression was very, very timely.

So, they targeted Mr. Hoover, as one of their most articulate and fluent critics and as an individual with worldwide name recognition because of his relief efforts after World War I. And don’t think that all these critics—socialist, communist, anarchist, and authoritarian, were just overseas. Many were—as they always are, living on our own shores expressing their beliefs freely and without restriction in a democratic society … as was their right.
​
Mr. Mark Sullivan in defense of Hoover wrote the following:

“Some of the demeaning of Mr. Hoover was ordinary American politics, emotionally embittered by distress attending depression. But some, coming by incitement or infection from outside America, was a coldly calculated strategy of world revolution, a battle in one of the greatest wars of ideology in history.

“After communism was set up in Russia in 1917, its proclaimed purpose was to destroy—everywhere in the world, the system of economic individualism and political freedom which the Communist leaders—with shrewd propagandist technique, labeled “capitalism,” making that epithet more familiar than the more correct word “individualism.”

​“Mr. Hoover had a unique identity with the system they sought to displace, which made it appropriate and shrewd for the Communist heads to single him out, and personify their attacks on capitalism into a personal attack on Mr. Hoover.

“What made Mr. Hoover unique was his relation to America and to the time. He was president of the principal capitalist country, and within that country he was the head of the conservative party, and during his presidency the capitalist system had come upon a historic economic disaster.”

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​So many of us—including me, delayed or failed to research, recognize, acknowledge and record Herbert Hoover’s “recovery.”

​Mark Sullivan summarized this recovery of Herbert Hoover in the same article:

“Today … I quote the Reader’s Digest:

“ ‘In the seventy-fourth year of his crowded life, in the fifteenth year since he went directly from the White House to the dog house, Herbert Hoover again enjoys immense popular esteem and an influence in public affairs second to no other private citizen. …’ ”
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“One hopes that popular esteem for Mr. Hoover as a man is accompanied by new appreciation of the principles associated with him.”

“Herbert Hoover’s Return,” Mark Sullivan, Tampa Bay Times, December 27, 1947

Amen, Mark Sullivan.

Herbert Hoover appears to have always defended what he defined as our American social way of life:

​Not "pure" capitalism per se', but American Individualism!

Capitalism with an American touch!

Cheers,

- Pete

Footnotes

#1: ​Although this author is sounding critical here, he acknowledges that he was of the same mold as most of us, surviving on the limited historical knowledge provided in high school and colleges on our U. S. Presidents. It was only after reading two other works of Herbert Hoover that this author’s opinion and insight into his life and times has changed significantly. The author recommends reading two of Herbert Hoover’s works. Reviews are available off this website here: “The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson” and “The Problems of Lasting Peace.”

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