Print things and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we now refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lecture s in history is always available as podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses his book, an uncommon man, the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Richard smith, why kdid you call your book you wrote 35 years ago, uncommon man . Its taken from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. You remember Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, maybe 43, about the common man. And wallace, from the left of center, perspective, was projecting in effect the goals and am birgss of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough to simply beat the nadzis, but to create at home, a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place in the political spectrum. He was in effect making the case for what we might call ameritocr a acy. I shouldnt paraphrase it. When you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommon uncommonly able general. You get the picture. The advances in society were brought about not by common, but by uncommon individuals and then with hoover wit, he said ive never met an american parent who is proud to have their son or daughter called common. It seems to me it applied to hoover more than anyone else. When you stop and think about it, its the sort of thing you would expect an engineer to say and thats one of the keys to understanding his life. His success. In everything but the presidency. As we continue our series on the presidency, go back to the beginning of hoover, where did he come from, where did it all start . His life began in august, 1874. General grant was in the white house. His father was a black smith. Jesse hoover. His mother, holder hoover, was a, they were both quakers, which meant she was an equal presence in the church, in the community, in the home. She was a lay preacher. If you will. So, religion was a significant part of his early days. He remembereded, and again, seems to me such a window on his later shortcomings, if you will, as a politician in particular. He remembered as a boy, sitting in the stark, cold, barren Meeting House that the quakers used in west branch and his feet didnt even touch the r floor. And along with all the adults, women on one side, men on the other, waiting for the divine wya white to illuminate his life, to move him to speak, as it moved others in the congregation. He said he was 10 years old before he realized that he could do something for the sheer joy of it without offending the lord. He was clearly moved by the suffering, particularly of children, in belgium and there aft after, they had trouble making the two hoovers blend. They were the mirror side of his weaknesses. What were his parents like and what happened to him . Well, he was orphan ed at 8. Jesse died first and holder, i believe, i want to say, he may have been 10. In any event. He was put on a train with 10 cents, some under clothes and homemade visit tattles and sentr or to live with an uncle in newburgh, oregon. If you go today, you can see the Herbert Hoover boyhood home there. And there, he was, in effect, trained to business. His uncle was a business man and burt, he was known, went on to stanford. He was in the original class. In fact, stanford became probably the closest thing to a home away from home. He would be a trustee for over 50 years. He built his home there. Today, its the university of president s house. But any event, he loved stanford. And he ran a business. He ran a laundry business. He ran other businesses so he had this entrepreneurial streak in him. Studiy eiey eied gee ol ji and engineering. Met, fell in love with lou henry, also from iowa. A unique woman in many ways. The first at stan frd to earn a gee ol ji degree, so they had this really special partnership from the beginning. They were intellectual equals. The best evidence of that is they were married in 1899. And the government of china had invited him to help develop that countrys minds and they were, they went. They stayed on their honeymoon and went to kim sin, where they were caught up in the uprising of native forces against the westerners, who for too long, had exploited a very weak china. In the wonderful letters, lou, who, she was the perfect wife. Because she loved adventure. She writes letters home saying youre missing one of the great sieges of the age. She also said hater later on, s up every morning, swept the bullets off her front porch. They had two sons. You can see it at the library. Lou designed a cradle exclusively for use on board ocean liners. By the time herbert jr. Was 8 years old, he had been around the world five times, which tells you what happened was hoover, who began dig ore in nevada then being hired by a London Mining firm at the age of 23 and sent to australia, found fabulous riches there for his employers. By the time hes in his 30s, he was regarded as the worlds mothforemost mine engineer. Hes living in lond and one of the things that would come back to haunt him throughout his political career, throughout his public life, were those among his own country men, nativists, who believed that he was not sufficiently american. That he was somehow really british. Its reminiscent of some of the allegation as made against barack obama when he ran for president. In any event, hoovers 40 years old in 1914. Li living lond as i say. Hugely successful. Restless. As i said, he was a member of the society of friends. A quaker. And he had a quaker conscious. And he was bored with just making money. He was a millionaire. Several times over. And he was not terribly impressed with wealth. And so, in 1914, at the outbreak of world war i, he was very receptive when approached by fellow engineers. The first crisis of the war was something approaching 120,000 american travelers who were in europe at the time the war broke out, who managed to make their way to london, but then they had to get home. And hoover agreed to, in effect, lead this group that put up their own funds at times. That managed to organize transportation, to get all of these people out of the war zone. To get them home. And the thing to remember about it is, for all the checks he wrote and he wrote a lot of checks, he said later on, he only, like 500 wasnt repaid, which was a fraction. And it taught him a lesson. He had an unhimted faith in the generosity, the basic goodness and the trust wor tworthytrustw American People and thats important. Within a matter of weeks, he was approach ed about taking on enormous task. Something never before attempted. Something that no one could really put their arms around because it was unprecedented. Had been invaded early in the war by the germans. Basically, it was out of the war. There were 7. 5 Million People in belgium who faced starvation. At one point, he was told they were down to about five days food supply. In addition, theres a corner of france, any way, between the two, there were 10 Million People who confronted the real specter of starving to death. In the face of that, hoover was asked to in effect, abandon his career. For how long however long the war lasted and becoform an independent republic of relief. No one had any idea of the dimensions of the task. They learned that the hard way. But eventually, something called the commission for the relief of belgium. Or the crb. Britain was blockading europe and germany. The germans didnt want to feed the belgian januarys. The british were shocked anyone asked them to feed the belgians, who after all, had been invaded by the germans. What hoover was doing or attempting to do had never been done before. In the end, it was a four year effort that cost over a billion dollars. When a billion collars was real money. Much of it voluntarily raised. Some of it provided by waring governments. But he kept the belgians alive. One of the things and theres so many stories. As long as he lived, he told belgian stories. That was a period of pure unadulterated accomplishment. Lou, for example, his partner, undertook to save the belgian lace industry. And again, they were always t y trying to raise funds. She saw to it that there was these ser up tishs factories, people spinning belgian lace, which would be smuggled out of the country. People would wrap themselves in this lace under their clothes. Its a spy story, a political and diplomatic story. Hoover was not very diplomatic by nature. The interesting thing is lou said later on, he was never the same after belgium. That what he saw, particularly the children. Remember, he was an orphan and all his life, there was something about hoover, he was not naturally gifted in social interaction. But with children, it was a different person. Belgium stamped him for bet r or worse and the other remark bable thing and billing on what we said earlier, it was all voluntary. He appealed to the American People. He said if you tell them what you need, theyll give you the shirt off their backs. You go to west bridge. The records are there. It is, its a remarkable story. There was one group, i think they were the kansas club of new york, who were going to build a clubhouse and instead building themselves a clubhouse, they gave hoover the 500,000 they had raised and that was repeated over and over again. And again, at this point, the United States wasnt in the war. But again, that reenforced hoovers belief that all a his life, he was looking for a third way between capitalism, which he abhorred and socialism, which he dreaded. And he came up with a terriblicalterribly clunky, what was it, voluntary association. The idea that without coercion, you could approach, you could reach americans at the grass roots through churches, through community chests, through red cross. Through a whole host of volunteer organizations. That was the backbone of america. He had become a phenomenon as you might imagine. Wilson entrusted him with the American Food administration and he is, its all voluntary. There are no ration kad r cards in world war i. He uses prop began ta kai. Public relations. This new embryonic science to reach people and touch people and motivate them to respond to his appeals. They were meatless mondays and wheatless wednesdays. Not every campaign worked. There was campaign by a pig. A properly cared for pig is as sanitary as anything else. The suburbs did not rise up and embrace that. Whale steak. The American People would grow more, save more and together, they would basically feed their allies across the sea. Two problems with that. Gep, it confirmed hoover in his belief. Which by now, was u a bedrock conviction. That wohatever the problem, you know, you didnt need a government solution. You just needed to organize. Hoover always said the test of democracy was that it was organized from the bottom up. Again, people responded. It confirmed him in his faith. Economically the problem, the legacy was we grew, farmers grew more andddicted to foreign, to surplus purchases overseas and of course in the 1920s, no more war. No more european markets. Theres a slump. So there was an agricultural depression if america long before 1929 and that was one of the things that bedevilled president s throughout the period. Hoover and wilson became close with either man each in his own way was almost too rational, too cerebral for the political process. Hoover was part of the delegation. And later on, years later. Hoover did something no american president had done. Until george w. Bush wrote about his dad, hoover was the only american president to write a book about another american president. He wrote a book called the ordeal of woodrow wilson, which was very sympathetic and a best seller. He only wrote two dozen books. That was the only one on the best seller list. It was a fascinating, and what it is and wilson that clearly appeals to hoover, its useful to know in terms of predicting many of the problems that hoover would u eck appearance in the white house. Who asked him to be commerce secretary and how long was he there and what impact did he have . The administration were rather touchingly, aware of his own limitations, set out to recruit a cabinet of the best men. So i mean Charles Evans hughes became secretary of state. He asked hoover basically gave him a choice. Which in those days was perhaps the least Important Department in the cabinet. Hoover being hoover, secretary of commerce. And he did rub a lot of feath feathers. He created something that was there. The federal radio commission. Its regulate d because hoover started it. From the outset, he was certain he did not want a bbc type arrangement. He did not want, he wanted government to regulate the industry, but didnt want government to run the industry. With enormous repercussions ever since. The first airfield in washing n washington, where the pentagon is, he took, oh, man. He wrote zoning regular laces that could be adapted all over the country. Of new housing with standardized products. Sounds kind of dull. In the white house, he was famous. No one could last longer than 60 minutes and he once ate a five courses in 13 minutes. He was asked, do you mind dropping your middle initial . Why . I have to sign my name hundreds of times a day. Youve got to get yourself inside that kind of brain. He was commerce secretary for almost eight years. At the tail end after he had been nominated, seven and a half years under harding and coolidge. A very poignant scene and who knows what might have been. He had Great Respect for hoover. You dont write the same english that a i do. Well, im not sure thats an sun insult. But in any event, he had Great Respect for hoover and one thing i mentioned, both parties in 1920 flirted with the idea of nominating hoover. They said, if it was left to him, he would choose Herbert Hoover and he talked to some democrats in 1920. He was a republican. He was a Teddy Roosevelt progressive republican. His problem with the party throughout the 20s and throughout his presidency was from the right wing that never really trusted him and one of the more isolationists too. They held his kcosmo poll tin background against him. He went on a voyage to alaska where harding felt ill and they returned to san francisco. And harding was oppressed by something and he couldnt get it off his chest. He couldnt sleep. He played bridge endlessly, game after game of bridge. And its funny, hoover who loved cards and was a mean canasta player in his later years permanently lost his taste for bridge. Never played bridge again after harding died because that trip had worn out his tolerance for the game but also because of the tragic consequences of the trip. Harding asked him at one point, cryptically, if you knew of some great scandal within the administration, what would you do . And hoovers advice was to go public with it totally. You would at least get credit for exposing the wrongdoers. And harding didnt bring up the subject again. But it was clear to hoover that the harding scandals had broken through. He said, people dont die of broken hearts. But people can get exhausted and be vulnerable to heart attacks because of profound disappointment. And clearly Warren Harding was disappointed. The completion of that story, harding died in august 1923. Coolidge becomes president. He retains hoover. They dont have the same chemistry that harding did. Hoover was unwilling to be inactive. And plus, i think coolidge sensed hoovers ambition and yet its interesting, when the mississippi overflowed, to this day by some amazement, it covered thousands and thousands of square miles in the south. There was no government agency, there was no expectation that government would respond in any way. There was only Herbert Hoover who had the nickname the master of emergencies. This was a domestic emergency on the scale that he had dealt with overseas. So, typically, he left washington, went out into the field, organized, you know, tent cities, Railroad Cars full of food, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera and its interesting because in 1928 he ran against a very impressive governor of new york, al smith, charismatic figure, seen as sort of the father of modern liberalism before franklin roosevelt, his successor. And no one writes about 1928 without emphasizing the anticatholic bigotry that smith ran into in the south. Its not Barry Goldwater who broke the solid south, it was Herbert Hoover who carried texas and several other southern states. The assumption is that he only carried them as a measure of the anticatholic bias that existed in the deep south. That clearly was a factor. Theres another factor that tends to get overlooked, and that is the gratitude that people in the deep south felt because hoover was the face of relief at the time of the floods. You know, the only person really certainly the only Person Associated with government who had tried to address their needs. I mentioned the harding story concludes in they built harding tomb, a great, big hollow drum in marion, ohio, but they couldnt get anyone to dedicate. Coolidge wouldnt go and dedicate it. And so hoover in 19 seven years after harding died, hoover took a train to marion and he dedicated it. And not only did he dedicate it, but he used his speech to single out people in the audience who had been crooked in the harding administration. People who had hastened the president s death. It was a very gutsy thing to do. How was he picked by the Republican Party to be the candidate and how big did he win against al smith . In many ways, he was a reluctant choice. Remember, this was a guy who had, you know, frattenized with the enemy. This was someone who had talked seriously to democrats about 1920. In fact, its a wonderful letter that year from Young Franklin roosevelt to a friend who had urged hoovers virtues and fdr agreeing and saying, he certainly is a wonder. No one would be better than hes Herbert Hoover as a democratic nominee. He knew enough about politics to know that in 1920, it was a republican year. So, anyway, he allowed his name to be entered in the california primary against johnson, a senator who was a military isolationist. He got enough votes to really wound johnson and make sure that johnson would not be nominated, but not enough votes to impress the professionals. Remember, that was the famous smokefilled Room Convention when a Senatorial Group met. He was that kind of in 1920s, the closest thing to a modern parallel would be colin powell, say, in the 1990s or early 2000. Someone who frankly should have made the party proud to have as a member, but whom the base would shy away from as a standardbearer. How big did he win by . He won by 6 1 2 million votes. 21 1 2 million votes to 15 million votes. However, beneath those numbers, one reason why al smith is held in higher regard than most unsuccessful candidates, theres a sense that smith started something. The best evidence is that cities, american cities. Calvin coolidge carried new york city. The last republican to do so. Al smith, of course, carried new york city. But he carried a lot of other cities as well. You had the makings of an early realignment. Had there not been the Great Depression, had hoovers reputation not been destroyed during his single term of office, what is fascinating to speculate is, would that breakthrough in the south, would that have been a onetime event attributable in fact to al smith as an opponent, or might it have in fact foreshadowed the twoparty system. How did the Great Depression come about . I cant tell you. I cant answer that. And i think there are a lot of economists who would if theyre honest, respond the same way. There are clearly a number of factors, some of which are easily identified. The dislocations of the war, we had this crazy, crazy quilt system where as part of the versailles agreement, crushing reparations were demanded by the victors of defeated germany which was really in no position economically. It had been largely unscathed by the war. Nevertheless so you had this crazy system where germany is borrowing money from the united stat states. The United States came out of world war i the new financial centerpiece of the world. New york sub planted london. New york came out of world war i a creditor nation. The rest of the world owed it. But you had the system where american banks were loaning money to germany which then used the money to pay off the reparations to anyway, in addition, domestically, you had a rotten banking system. Totally unregulated. There were banks that were speculating on the stock market. There were banks that were doing things with deposited money that should shock us today. You had wall street speculation, rank, overheated, baseless. Lots of people buying stock on margin which is to say in effect, they were borrowing funds and if the stock market ever went down, particularly if it went down sharply, then they would have to sell their stock. The whole system was jerry built. Hoover believed it was the cumulative impact of the war, the dislocations brought about by the war. And its true, it was an international phenomenon. It was not limited to the United States. But i for the life of me cant give you a single reason. One very important contributing factor was that glut of consumer goods in the 1920s. Ironically, hoover who celebrated the abundance of modern industry, you know, cars were affordable, so were refrigerators, so were other appliances, homes, all of those homes that he built. Lots of them were bought on credit. But more than that, radio, aviation. You had new industries that are were taking off. But the market became literally glutted. And one thing economists know is that wages failed to keep pace with prices. So you had this gap which grew and at the same time you had millions of people who were in effect overcommitted. They were living, in effect, paycheck to paycheck. They were speculating in stocks. But eventually the purchasing power being what it was. And remember, the farmers were depressed and its had you know, 40 , 40 of the American Workforce in 1920s was in agriculture. So when you talk about agricultural depression, nearly half the country was depressed long before wall street collapsed. One other thing that is so easy to overlook when youre looking at the failure of the economy to respond to the various stimlative efforts and even fdr, you have to remember how tiny a percentage of the american gdp went to the government in those days. When Herbert Hoover became president in 1929, the federal budget was less than 4 billion and a substantial part of that was going to veterans. The reason he vetoed the veterans bonus for which he paid a very high price, in fact, it was one of those classic cases, youve been around this town long enough. There are instances where congress will pass something knowing the president will veto it so they dont have to take the heat. The veterans bonus which had been promised to world war i veterans but many years down the road, i think in the 1940s. Of course there was this understandable groundswell demanding and early payment of the bonus. And a 3 billion a year budget could have been doubled and it would have been throwing a pebble into the river. Criticism of hoover for not being sufficiently vigorous in exerting the potential of government to affect the economy overlooks how limited was the effect. Like all of us in retrospect, we see all kinds of things that we didnt see at the time. The idea that government in bust times should bust the budget, in other words, that it should do everything it could it can to boost purchasing power. Depressions were all about deflation. So if you could inflate the economy, you know, presumably, thats the necessary medicine. But nobody knew about keens economics in the 1920s. In fact, theres a famous incident in 35, 36 when fdr meets professor keens. He was very cordial, but it was clear that fdr wasnt intellectually a convert. Maybe politically a convert to keens economics. Anyway, there were all sorts this is not to excuse. Hoovers great failing and we can talk about some of the things. At the time and this is easily overlooked, hoover exists in the shadow of fdr. Fdr did so much more. But in the context of the time, what hoover did was seen so much more than his predecessors. We had Great Depressions before, martin van buren, grover cleveland, the notion that the federal government, especially, would step in and try to correct the Economic Cycle was heresy. Depressions were acts of gods. There were booms and busts and there was nothing you could do about it and thats the philosophy that, for example, andrew melon who was hoovers holdover secretary of the pressure maintained. He basically told the president , just, you know, flush out the system, all of the bad, the crooked bankers, the speculators, all of that, you know, that was hobbs in economics. And hoovers response was to get himself a new secretary of the treasury. He sent melon to the court of saint james. But the other thing is, we tend to think that the stock market collapsed in october of 1929 and the next day there were bread lines. In fact, this was a story that took time to evolve. Early in 1930 the new york times, among other media outlets, praised hoover for doing more than any president before under the circumstances. Hoover did not believe in the boom and bust. In fact, to go back to Warren Hardings administration, as secretary of commerce, there was a severe recession right after world war i and it was hoover who was in fact delegated with the responsibility and what he did was, among other things, greatly increased public work spending. Which, again, in many ways, a foreshadow of what we associate with the new deal. Hoover immediately, again, voluntary association, hoover called to the white house for job owning dozens of the nations leading business executives. He got them to agree to undertake an increase in their commitments and wages were you want to talk to henry ford. They agreed to increase worker wages. He contacted all of the governors of the states, the 48 states, and appealed to them to increase step up, accelerate, public works programs. He himself went to congress and asked for 150 million which was more than any president before him, in fact, more than most president s combined. And that was just the first installment. The idea that he did nothing, you know, is pretty thoroughly disabused. So why is he 70, 80 years later pillaried, why is he personally associated with the Great Depression . A number of reasons for that. One, the democrats hired a man named Charlie Michaelson who working for the Baltimore Sun and he invented negative politics in the way that you and i would understand it. His sole job every day was to blacken the reputation of the president , to drive home in voters minds the fact that this man was heartless, this man was responsible for the Great Depression, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hoover unwittingly contributed to that by being hoover is a great failure. You could say he had a failure of imagination. He should never have signed the tariff in 1930 which infect built walls around the American Economy and encouraged other countries to do the same. That was a real error of job. But hoovers great failing was temperamental. He tried to make a virtue out of it. He said, you cant make a Teddy Roosevelt out of me. Well, go back to that 10yearold boy who didnt know that he could do something for pleasure without offending god, i almost thought there was a direct connection between that and the adult hoover who was in many ways emotionally stunted. He is the most improbable politician. His story is i suppose ever president is unique in his way. One of the lessons i think that hoovers story teaches us is, beware of successful businessmen because the qualities that drive business success, the ability to work with the board of directors, the knowledge that your order will be carried out, thats not the same as working in congress. Hoover had poor relations with congress, which was nominally republican, the first half of his term, and marginally democratic the second half. He didnt have the political gift. He knew he didnt have the political gift. But thats the other lesson of the hoover presidency. Hoover is one of those very rare president S William Howard taft comes to mind people who are, again, almost too rational, too cerebral, who dont have in their dna whatever that political gene in that enables a Lyndon Johnson in the most extreme example to thrive. What were the circumstances in 1932, did he run again, and what happened . He ran again. He was nominated by a republican convention. We didnt mention prohibition. Another issue that complicated life particularly for the republicans because by and large, they had a lot of rural supporters. The Republican Party was split on the issue of prohibition. Hoover, again, cosmo poll tin figure who didnt mind taking a drink but who was sworn to enforce the law. And in 1932, he was on the unpopular side of the issue. I think by 1932, there are a lot of people, including the regional supporters of prohibition, that concluded that this experiment had not worked and that in many ways it had backfired. He was carrying that deadweight. He had the depression. He had his own inability to inspire. You think of fdr and radio. Hoover was on radio. The difference is, hoover was once asked if he got excited, if he found it exciting speaking on the radio. And he said it was as if society is talking to a doorknob. Thats the literally thats the engineer, you know. So, anyway, he ran again. The bonus army came to town. Measures that are still being debated, still subject of controversy, he dispatched Douglas Mcarthur of all people, not to cross the bridge over and set fire to the veterans camp. Mcarthur took it upon himself to do. Hoover sent explicit orders to mcarthur and they were disobeyed. It was not the last time that Douglas Mcarthur was to disobey executive authority. How big did fdr win . Fdr swept the country. This man who had i dont think more modestly jimmy carter between 76 and 80. But i dont think anyone has gone from such an overwhelming mandate when he was elected to a powerful consensus that he should leave office. I think roosevelt carried all but six states. And with it congress and then of course in some ways what put the seal on hoovers reputation as a failured president was the next three months. The Hoover Roosevelt interi go numb was so bad that the constitution was amended. President s used to be sworn in on march 4th. It was decided that was too long. It was too long because it was too long in 1932, 1933. The two men had virtually no communication. I think its safe to say, hoover believed that fdr was deliberately avoiding having any responsibility in the hopes that if things did go to hell, that he would then receive the credit and in many ways thats exactly what happened. The irony is, the banks were crashing at the end of just the roof was falling in. And hoover could oppose the banks, but it was that some would say stubbornness, some would say political, i would say lack of political finesse, but he insisted that fdr had to agree with him, it had to be a joint undertaking. Theres a difference. Fdr who is not only a born politician, but a natural pragmatist. He said try something. That is exactly what the American People wanted to hear after four years in which it was felt that nothing had been tried. A lot was tried but it came very soon to be overshadowed by the scale, the scope of what fdr undertook. What were the circumstances in your life in 1984 when this book was published . Gosh, i was in d. C. I had published a big biography of thomas duey that i had spent a year researching. I came back to d. C. And was writing on a consultant basis for bob dole for whom i had work earlier. And with whom im very proud to say ive been associated over the years. I had done this book on tom dewy who in some ways is the ultimate overlooked historical figure. Someone stereotyped and written off who turned out to have a vastly more interesting and coincidental life. Hoover was a logical sequel. I visited west branch as an adolescent and had been really moved by the site and its still moving youre talking about west branch, iowa. Where hoover was born and buried. And the 450 yards separate the two. The birthplace is a little 14 x 20 foot. Its a size of the average american living room today. A little whitewashed cottage. And 450 yards away on a hillside called the overlook, the very simple graves of president and mrs. Hoover. And he made one wish known and that was that nothing ever be planted or built that would interfere with the view. He wanted people to stand at his grave and look off at the little house where he was born and draw the conclusion that he had drawn that what set america apart was the fact that the circumstances of your birth in no way limited the potential of your life. Its 1984 when you wrote this book or when it was published. When did you run the Hoover Library and museum and why . In fact, out of this book, i guess, i had no idea at the time that i was planting a seed of what would be a 17year career at five president ial libraries. I was called by a man from west branch, iowa, running the president ial Library System which was a good deal smaller in those days. He asked me out of the blue, would you have any interest in being director of the Hoover Library . And i thought immediately, what a wonderful job. Now, people around me, i was at that point, i was working at pete wilsons office, senator from california, writing speeches. And people thought why on earth would you want to live in west branch, iowa, population 1,800 . Which told you more about them than west branch. I left washington and went out and had a whale of a time. Spent sixplus years learning my trade in west branch, making some friends for life. And so i did it reverse. I wrote the book and then became director of the library. And that was the first of several. What would you say was the most significant and we only have a minute and a half the most significant thing that hoover did that is still in this country to this day . You could look physically at hoover dam. It was no accident that his name was put on it because he as secretary of commerce associate negotiated a exact with seven states, Rocky Mountain states, over the water of the Colorado River that they were all fighting over. Water being dear in the west, then and now. And the result was hoover dam. Thats the most obvious physical legacy. Much more important, i would argue, however, is the example of a businessman who walked away from his fortune, he said literally, let the fortune go to hell, first to feed belgium and then to organize American Relief and ultimately to go onto save more lives than historically, stalin and mao together could eliminate. Not a bad epitaph. Thank you for helping us with our series on president s. The name of the book and it is available on amazon and other places as a used book, this one, by the way, comes from a library in milford, michigan, the one that i have. An uncommon man the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Thank you very much. Thank you. For free transcripts or to give us your comment about this program, visit us at q a. Org. Q a programs are available as cspan podcasts. Weeknights this month on American History tv, its the contenders, our series that looks at 14 president ial candidates who lost the election but who had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight we feature 1940 republican president ial nominee wendell willkie. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Now on American History tv, a look at challenges faced by catholic
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