A Book Review of Herbert Hoover's Memoir: "The Great Depression"
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Date Published: August 18, 2025
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A Review of Herbert Hoover's Memoir: "The Great Depression"
- Reviews of the Day: 1952
- Selected Insights from Hoover's “The Great Depression”
- This Author’s Thoughts on Hoover's “The Great Depression"
Reviews of the Day: 1952
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On September 5, 1952 in The Nashville Banner, Joseph H. Ballew reviewed “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression” in his article entitled “Years of Great Depression.”
Mr. Ballew wrote: “ ‘The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression’ is monumental in scope, well documented and presents facts and circumstances which show the falsity of the charge that The Great Depression was a ‘Hoover Depression.’ … “Mr. Hoover holds no punches. He obviously feels deeply the injustice of the accusations made against him by those who opposed him politically, but his reaction is not one of recrimination, but simply a determination that his side of the story shall be told. … “ The ‘Memoirs’ are more than history—they constitute a complete answer to the question—how a man defamed as was Herbert Hoover has risen to a place of preeminence in the hearts of his countrymen.” |
Front dust cover from Herbert Hoover's Memoirs: "The Great Depression."
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High-quality image of a sitting United States President Herbert Hoover.
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On September 7, 1952 in The Buffalo Courier-Express, Dick Kopke reviewed “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression” in his article entitled “Hoover Denies Responsibility for Depression: Hits at FDR.”
Mr. Kopke wrote: “The most intriguing phase of the book covers the period from the Summer of 1932 to FDR’s inauguration in March 1933. … Hoover advances the contention that the nation was on the road to recovery in mid-1932, citing diminished bank closings and a slowdown of gold exports. … In July 1932, Hoover said: ‘We had warded off four paralysis-promising panics and now at last had turned the tide toward sound recovery.’ … “This last volume of the Hoover memoirs is well worth attention. It provides, at the very least, another point of view on a number of supposed facts, whose accuracy has been dimmed by time, misinformation and propaganda. … Hoover suggests quite firmly that World War II rather than FDR’s programs was the divining rod that located the corner behind which prosperity was hiding.” |
On September 16, 1952 in “Books and Authors” in The Lewiston Daily Sun, J.C. D. reviewed “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression” in his article entitled “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover.”
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The book reviewer wrote:
“The main thesis advanced in this most recent volume of the Memoirs of Herbert Hoover is that The Great Depression did not end in the middle or late 1930’s, and that, in fact, it extended from 1929 to 1941. … To the serious student of American history, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Mr. Hoover’s latest volume is his assertion that the New Deal constituted an effort to crossbreed certain features of Socialism as well as Fascism with our American free system. … “Mr. Hoover himself points out, though, that certain aspects of the early New Deal (the NRA is a good example) had the strong support of some groups which were definitely not of the political Left and some of them were essentially conservative. … “ ‘The Great Depression’ is an important book and deserves a thoughtful reading. … Herbert Hoover is that rare being, a politician who writes with precision and clarity and who exhibits throughout a tough intellectual integrity which has its own special appeal. … "He has at his command a rather neat sense of humor.” |
Herbert Hoover with Henry Ford
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Selected Insights from Herbert Hoover's “The Great Depression"
- Herbert Hoover's Thoughts on the Usage of Presidential Executive Orders to Run the Country
Herbert Hoover writes of his avoidance of bureaucracies within his political organizations because, “There are three implacable spirits in bureaucracy: (1) self-perpetuation, (2) expansion, and (3) demand for more power.”
President and Mrs. Hoover waving from the back of a train during the 1932 Presidential campaign.
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Throughout the work Herbert Hoover displays an amazing humility and humor of understatement. He said in his very last address as the 31st President of the United States that “You will expect me to discuss the late election. … Well, as nearly as I can learn we did not have enough votes on our side. … My country has given me the highest honor that comes to a man. … That is a debt I can never repay.”
Hoover also offers some insights into the usage of presidential power in “emergencies.” Evaluating the FDR administration’s usage of fear and uncertainty to move power from the legislative branch to the executive branch of the government, Hoover writes the following: “In FDR’s authorized speeches and statements for 1933–34 alone, FDR justified action for more than two hundred Executive Orders with the word ‘emergency,’ and in his first two years he used the word ‘emergency’ more than four hundred times in public statements. “Roosevelt’s assertions of his ‘emergencies’ became grotesque. … |
“In his first term alone—a period of peace, FDR issued 1,486 Executive Orders, as against an average of 166 for each previous four years of Presidents since George Washington. And that 143 years included four wars which necessitated more than the usual executive actions.
“Such a quantity of orders constantly emphasized Congressional surrender of its responsibilities.”
“Such a quantity of orders constantly emphasized Congressional surrender of its responsibilities.”
- Herbert Hoover's Thoughts on Government Bureaucracy and Intellectual "Concentration Camps"
Herbert Hoover also believed in each individual’s right to self-determination and an open, honest and non-bureaucratic government. He wrote the following of how he felt Roosevelt’s administrative bureaucracy was trying to control the American people:
“It is the natural instinct as well as a necessity of bureaucracy to seek self-preservation and expansion.
“Propaganda is a bureaucracy’s first weapon. The public mind must be conditioned, through government propaganda, into common denominators of thought. … Criticism must be silenced. Physical concentration camps are not necessary, as repeated defamation, constant attack, and smearing of objectors can create intellectual concentration camps.
“No private agency (or business entity) has the funds to contend with government money in this field”
“It is the natural instinct as well as a necessity of bureaucracy to seek self-preservation and expansion.
“Propaganda is a bureaucracy’s first weapon. The public mind must be conditioned, through government propaganda, into common denominators of thought. … Criticism must be silenced. Physical concentration camps are not necessary, as repeated defamation, constant attack, and smearing of objectors can create intellectual concentration camps.
“No private agency (or business entity) has the funds to contend with government money in this field”
- Herbert Hoover's Thoughts on Government-Regulated vs. Government-Dictated Business
This is a final thought from Hoover’s memoir, “The Great Depression” that seems to capture his ability to find a balance in his thinking and analysis of history. Hoover wrote:
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“We can no more have economic power without checks and balances than we can have political power without checks and balances. Either one without the checks and balances leads to tyranny. … There must be regulation of the traffic even when it is honest. We have too many people and too many devices to allow them to riot all over the streets of commerce.
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SELECT IMAGE TO READ HOOVER'S THOUGHTS ON
"THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF REGULATION" |
“But … a traffic policeman must only enforce the rules. He will block the traffic if he stands on the corner demanding to know their business and telling them how to run it. … The only system which will preserve liberty and hold open the doors of opportunity is government-regulated business, and this is far from government-dictated business as the earth’s two poles.
No democracy can dictate and survive as a democracy.”
No democracy can dictate and survive as a democracy.”
This Author’s Thoughts on Herbert Hoover's “The Great Depression”
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin (in the '70s) with a political science degree, I can honestly say that I don’t believe there was ever a course offered during this period on the beliefs and actions of Herbert Hoover. …
There were more than enough, though, that taught the philosophies of socialism.
This book challenges the ideologies of socialism, communism and fascism.
There were more than enough, though, that taught the philosophies of socialism.
This book challenges the ideologies of socialism, communism and fascism.
Herbert Hoover posing with the members of the President's "National Organization on Unemployment Relief."
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These memoirs are fascinating reading with so many new insights as to make all of them "works of instruction" that must be read multiple times to capture the full scope of this individual’s life and impact on our society before, during, and after two world wars and The Great Depression. He was truly a great American and it is criminal that his life isn’t studied and written about in more depth within our universities. I highly recommend this third and final memoir just as I recommended the first two.
On February 25, 1933, in an article entitled “The Goals of Herbert Hoover” in The Des Moines Register by Mark Sullivan, Mr. Sullivan summarized the problems facing our 31st President of the United States with the start of The Great Depression. Mark Sullivan wrote: “The years of Mr. Hoover’s administration were the Gettysburg of the individualistic system. To a peculiar degree, … Mr. Hoover fought the battle alone. In every previous business depression comparable to this, responsibility for defense of the American economic system was assumed by the financial community in New York and its leaders. "In the Panic of 1907, generalship was provided by the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. All that Washington contributed was such incidental help as Mr. Morgan asked for … and it was immaterial aid. … |
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“In this depression, Mr. Hoover had all the responsibility, supplied all the generalship. … The part played by American financial communities became negligible. The New York financial community did not, so much as hold a meeting, until after nearly two years when Mr. Hoover summoned them to Washington … and asked to form the National Credit Corporation for extending aid to threatened banks … and enabling closed banks to make payments to depositors.”
One has to wonder that when those whose livelihoods depended on the capitalistic system fail to protect it, they should be the ones remembered for “failing,” not the person in power doing his best with a different party in power in Congress. The financial leaders of the day failed to enact helpful financial support without giving in to the opposing political forces in play around the world at the time: fascism, socialism and communism. |
Herbert Hoover with his wife and a granddaughter.
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Mr. Hoover’s third volume of his memoirs entitled, “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression” does an excellent job showing how he tried to protect our political system of democracy and economic system of “American Individualism” from forces both economic and political trying to destroy it. It is so full of detail as to make it difficult reading “for pleasure” but, for the person desiring details that I have not seen anywhere else … it is a gold mine.
In this memoir, I would highly recommend jumping to a very short section entitled “The American System of Regulation.” It will give the essence of what runs through these memoirs and how Herbert Hoover attempted to find a balance to avoid government-dictation through government-regulation.
Read and enjoy.
Cheers,
- Peter E.
In this memoir, I would highly recommend jumping to a very short section entitled “The American System of Regulation.” It will give the essence of what runs through these memoirs and how Herbert Hoover attempted to find a balance to avoid government-dictation through government-regulation.
Read and enjoy.
Cheers,
- Peter E.