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The shattered dream: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
1971 PAPERBACK
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
19 people want to read
About the author
Gene Smith
38 books10 followersEugene Owen Smith was born in Manhattan on May 9, 1929, to Sara and Julius Smith. His father was a lawyer. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in history, he attended law school (at his father’s insistence) for six months.
After dropping out, he was drafted into the Army and served in Germany in the early 1950s. Returning to New York, Mr. Smith got a job as a clerk at Newsweek and by 1956 was a reporter at The Newark Star-Ledger
.
He joined The New York Post a year later and left in 1960 to write his first book, “The Life and Death of Serge Rubinstein” (1962), about the still-unsolved 1955 murder of an unscrupulous Wall Street millionaire.
Among Mr. Smith’s other books are “When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson,” (1964); “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson” (1977); “Lee and Grant: A Dual Biography” (1984); and “Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing” (1998), a study of the commander of the American Expeditionary Force of World War I.
Shortly before his death, Mr. Smith wrote a brief obituary of himself, in third-person singular. It says, “He used to muse that if there was an afterlife — granted a long shot, he said — he’d love it for the opportunities offered to interview people he studied in life.”
Mr. Smith died from bone cancer; he was eighty-three at the time of his death.
After dropping out, he was drafted into the Army and served in Germany in the early 1950s. Returning to New York, Mr. Smith got a job as a clerk at Newsweek and by 1956 was a reporter at The Newark Star-Ledger
.
He joined The New York Post a year later and left in 1960 to write his first book, “The Life and Death of Serge Rubinstein” (1962), about the still-unsolved 1955 murder of an unscrupulous Wall Street millionaire.
Among Mr. Smith’s other books are “When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson,” (1964); “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson” (1977); “Lee and Grant: A Dual Biography” (1984); and “Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing” (1998), a study of the commander of the American Expeditionary Force of World War I.
Shortly before his death, Mr. Smith wrote a brief obituary of himself, in third-person singular. It says, “He used to muse that if there was an afterlife — granted a long shot, he said — he’d love it for the opportunities offered to interview people he studied in life.”
Mr. Smith died from bone cancer; he was eighty-three at the time of his death.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 21, 2022
I feel like this was a rather apologetic look on Herbert Hoover. I had no idea what his life was like before he became President - but, it was a pretty amazing, event-filled, world-traveling, danger-dodging one - and for that, I respect him. But the author seems to come across as saying the Hoover was completely blameless for the Great Depression...that Coolidge maybe was responsible, but probably not...and Roosevelt was a un-American commie! He takes Hoover's side that it was the policies enacted by Hoover in 1931/32 that really solved the Depression and that if Roosevelt hadn't interfered, things would have been all back to "normal" by 1935. And that's a complete load of bullocks.
If you want to read a rather light biography of Hoover that avoids saying anything bad about him, then this is the book for you. If you want to read about how Hoover was 100% blameless for the Depression, than this is the book for you.
If you want to read a rather light biography of Hoover that avoids saying anything bad about him, then this is the book for you. If you want to read about how Hoover was 100% blameless for the Depression, than this is the book for you.
January 31, 2022
I found this book among the books that my mother left me. I enjoyed. I knew nothing of Herbert Hoover or that particular time in history. Herbert Hoover was a good man, but not a good president. He was elected during the worst time in our history. He had much on his plate. I also love the election story of FDR. He was a fascinating person. I will likely read a book about him in the near future.
May 6, 2024
This is definitely an important read. I am simultaneously reading LBJ’s biography by Robert Caro. I finished the first part a couple of weeks ago. Because of that book, I came away with the impression that Hoover was probably someone who came from a very privileged background and, hence, did not care about the plight of millions of Americans who were reeling from the devastating effects of The Great Depression. The Shattered Dream dispelled that myth to begin with.
The book does a great job describing Hoover’s ascent from extremely humble origins and how his resourcefulness and ability to work excruciatingly hard made him the highest-paid man in the world before he’d even turned 35. The book then moves towards his humanitarian efforts in feeding impoverished portions of Europe during and after WWI. It is essential that people read this part because it shows that Hoover was not a cold-hearted man who did not care. He very much did. In fact, this was probably his life’s mission. How he used his contacts, his ingenuity, and his will to arrange food for millions is something that has been forgotten but should be remembered because it explains why Hoover got the mandate he got in 1928 and why he was regarded as the most capable man ever to be elected to the office.
Then there’s the unraveling. I’ve not read a lot of books set during the Depression, but I think Smith painted a very compelling and accurate picture of the struggles that folks all over America faced during those ill-fated years. The book painstakingly describes the legislation that kept coming up to save the economy and how most of it was thwarted. There were fantastic portions that provided insight into the failures of the banks, the microeconomy, and how it was all set up by the tax regime and the lax regulations surrounding the stock exchanges during the Coolidge-Mellon years. The book had multiple anecdotes, probably just a paragraph long, that described how desperate common Americans were at the time, and every single one of them broke your heart because they humanized the pain and took you really close to it. I feel that the book also did a good job describing Roosevelt, his appeal, and how different he was from Hoover.
Throughout the book, there is a strain of Hoover apologia though. It seems that the author was a little too keen on pinning the blame for 1929’s crash and the long, dark aftermath on Hoover’s predecessors (especially Coolidge and Mellon) and on the rise of his successor, FDR. The book keeps trying to convince the reader that Hoover was putting in all the effort that was necessary to stave off the crisis, that he was deeply pained by what was happening to his fellow citizens, and that he had almost found a way out of the entire mess. I believe that a lot of that is bullshit. And I am not saying this based on my feelings or my biases, but on the basis of what Hoover repeated throughout his Presidency, when the common folk were pleading for some, any monetary aid from the federal government. Hoover’s response was always the same: folks will become lazy, they will lose their individualism, the American dream will die out, etc. It was the tired, old Milton Freidman trope.
Hoover, like most misguided free-market wankers believed in charity by the masses instead of systematic government aid. But what happens when there is a vacuous class that does not care and nobody else has any money? FDR came in with the New Deal and proved him dead wrong. Also, Hoover’s retaliation to the Bonus Army Rebellion was absolutely despicable, and whatever respect I had for him due to his humanitarian work in Europe just went out of the window. Hoover was not an evil man, but he was undoubtedly an arrogant man who believed that he knew best, and if only people left him alone and stopped holding him accountable, he’d turn the ship around. Gene Smith constantly states otherwise, and while this is a well-researched, well-written account of the government and the man who presided over the Depression, Gene’s inability to criticize Hoover without caveats is where the book falters.
The book does a great job describing Hoover’s ascent from extremely humble origins and how his resourcefulness and ability to work excruciatingly hard made him the highest-paid man in the world before he’d even turned 35. The book then moves towards his humanitarian efforts in feeding impoverished portions of Europe during and after WWI. It is essential that people read this part because it shows that Hoover was not a cold-hearted man who did not care. He very much did. In fact, this was probably his life’s mission. How he used his contacts, his ingenuity, and his will to arrange food for millions is something that has been forgotten but should be remembered because it explains why Hoover got the mandate he got in 1928 and why he was regarded as the most capable man ever to be elected to the office.
Then there’s the unraveling. I’ve not read a lot of books set during the Depression, but I think Smith painted a very compelling and accurate picture of the struggles that folks all over America faced during those ill-fated years. The book painstakingly describes the legislation that kept coming up to save the economy and how most of it was thwarted. There were fantastic portions that provided insight into the failures of the banks, the microeconomy, and how it was all set up by the tax regime and the lax regulations surrounding the stock exchanges during the Coolidge-Mellon years. The book had multiple anecdotes, probably just a paragraph long, that described how desperate common Americans were at the time, and every single one of them broke your heart because they humanized the pain and took you really close to it. I feel that the book also did a good job describing Roosevelt, his appeal, and how different he was from Hoover.
Throughout the book, there is a strain of Hoover apologia though. It seems that the author was a little too keen on pinning the blame for 1929’s crash and the long, dark aftermath on Hoover’s predecessors (especially Coolidge and Mellon) and on the rise of his successor, FDR. The book keeps trying to convince the reader that Hoover was putting in all the effort that was necessary to stave off the crisis, that he was deeply pained by what was happening to his fellow citizens, and that he had almost found a way out of the entire mess. I believe that a lot of that is bullshit. And I am not saying this based on my feelings or my biases, but on the basis of what Hoover repeated throughout his Presidency, when the common folk were pleading for some, any monetary aid from the federal government. Hoover’s response was always the same: folks will become lazy, they will lose their individualism, the American dream will die out, etc. It was the tired, old Milton Freidman trope.
Hoover, like most misguided free-market wankers believed in charity by the masses instead of systematic government aid. But what happens when there is a vacuous class that does not care and nobody else has any money? FDR came in with the New Deal and proved him dead wrong. Also, Hoover’s retaliation to the Bonus Army Rebellion was absolutely despicable, and whatever respect I had for him due to his humanitarian work in Europe just went out of the window. Hoover was not an evil man, but he was undoubtedly an arrogant man who believed that he knew best, and if only people left him alone and stopped holding him accountable, he’d turn the ship around. Gene Smith constantly states otherwise, and while this is a well-researched, well-written account of the government and the man who presided over the Depression, Gene’s inability to criticize Hoover without caveats is where the book falters.
May 19, 2022
Ever since my daughter played the part of an orphan in the musical, Little Orphan Annie, I have believed that Hoover was an incompetent, and possibly the worst President ever. This story of how Hoover rose from poverty to riches, using his wealth to help others as he felt he had a moral obligation to do so, changed my opinion. This extremely hard-working, soft-spoken, shy man tried his hardest. He had made many, many lives better before -- and after! -- being President. He just didn't have the luck or charisma to make people believe he really was on their side. The situation reminded me of what President Biden is going through. He tries and tries and tries. Biden just doesn't have Trump's swagger. It's kind of sad, actually. I don't normally like books about history but I definitely recommend this one, especially in light of our current political situation.
December 18, 2023
This is a sad book. It is a biography of Herbert Hoover. He may be the most qualified man to ever be president of the United States. But his timing was horrible. And he lacked charisma. He was born into indigent circumstances but was extremely intelligent and a genius at problem solving. He became very wealthy and sought-after by companies for his problem-solving skills. He became president just as the stock market crashed, bringing on the great depression. The author’s feelings are that Hoover and Wilson were the best presidents this country ever had. “ In the end, a chosen few said of him that the world had dealt as cruelly with him as with any man who ever lived.” I am afraid that is true. I wish history had been kinder to Herbert Hoover.
August 31, 2014
Very good book, published in 1970, about the life and presidency of Herbert Hoover, one of the most accomplished, self-made men in American history, who earned fame and riches as a mining engineer and head of Belgian relief during World War I and its aftermath, and later became the most despised president in history during the Great Depression. Outstanding portrait of Hoover, an Iowa farm boy orphaned at a young age who by the age of 35 had traveled to six continents and become vastly wealthy finding mineral deposits for British companies, (he was in Stanford's first graduating class in 1895). His tireless efforts to feed Europeans during the war made Hoover an international hero and both political parties sought him out for president in 1920; announcing he was a nominal Republican, the bosses nominated the malleable Harding and Hoover became Secretary of Commerce, a rather insignificant post that he reformed. During the 1920s, Hoover was one of only a few standout political figures to come out of the Harding-Coolidge administrations. Applauded by liberals and progressives as well as most main-line Republicans, Hoover overwhelmed Al Smith in 1928 and became president with extremely high expectations.
After the Stock Market Crash in October, 1929, Hoover stubbornly refused calls to deficit spend on relief for the poor and unemployed, although his Reconstruction Finance Corporation did pump money into large companies that were deemed "too big to fail." As the country fell into the pit of financial collapse, Hoover worked 18 hours a day to resurrect the economy, without success. Great depictions of FDR, Andrew Mellon, Douglas MacArthur, Ogden Mills, Alfred E. Smith and other notable figures from the day. Half of the book is taken up with discussion of 1932, the Bonus March and the banking crisis and the election. A very interesting book.
After the Stock Market Crash in October, 1929, Hoover stubbornly refused calls to deficit spend on relief for the poor and unemployed, although his Reconstruction Finance Corporation did pump money into large companies that were deemed "too big to fail." As the country fell into the pit of financial collapse, Hoover worked 18 hours a day to resurrect the economy, without success. Great depictions of FDR, Andrew Mellon, Douglas MacArthur, Ogden Mills, Alfred E. Smith and other notable figures from the day. Half of the book is taken up with discussion of 1932, the Bonus March and the banking crisis and the election. A very interesting book.
February 27, 2009
It is the story of how Herbert Hoover who was the most popularly elected American president at the time became a man of broken dreams. The parallels between the events that led to the Great Depression are quite comparable to the events of today. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever said that history repeats itself. You leave the book feeling sorry for the man and the events that transpired.
August 30, 2016
Short book on President Hoover, primarily with a focus on his Presidency. Key portions are His effort to fight the depression and President Elect Roosevelt's "Riechstag Fire" in letting the banks fail, as well as dealing with the Bonus Army.
July 22, 2016
Good histoty of Herbert Hoover's presidency.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews