Publications

American Individualism

More than half a century ago, people everywhere were trying to recover from the devastating effects of World War I. Using his combined talents of engineering and management, Herbert Hoover organized a gigantic program for feeding the starving people of Europe. Returning to America, he put down on paper the spiritual, economic and political characteristics which enabled Americans to produce the materials needed to bring peace to the world and at the same time to discharge the social and spiritual commitment to give economic assistance to the people ravaged by war.

The results of his research were published in 1922 (Doubleday – Page) in a book entitled American Individualism. The Trustees of the Hoover Presidential Foundation have reprinted this book with the hope that today’s students and their parents will read it and perhaps gain an insight into a truly American Individualist–Herbert C. Hoover–who became the thirty-first President of the United States.

The pamphlet, American Individualism, can be ordered from the Hoover Presidential Foundation by sending a check for $5.00 (This includes postage and handling) to P.O. Box 696, West Branch, IA 52358.

McLean, Hulda Hoover, Hulda’s World: A Chronicle of Hulda Minthorn Hoover

1848 – 1884, 1989 paperback, 134 pages exclude index

Hulda Minthorn Hoover was the mother of Herbert Hoover. She was widowed in 1880 upon the death of her husband, Jesse Clark Hoover. She died when Herbert Hoover was nine years old, leaving as orphans Herbert, his older brother Theodore and younger sister Mary. Theodore was later to write, “The lady of the golden sunshine of little brown house had gone away, and there were left only three small children, adrift on the wreck of their little world.” Hulda Hoover McLean, daughter of Theodore, was named for the grandmother she never knew. McLean’s book is a compilation of anecdotes about her grandmother, culled from family letters and records, old newspapers, and the oral stories of family members. According to the author, “Her story is of a gifted girl and woman, loving and beloved, living in a small Midwest town in the mid 1800s.”

Nash, George H., The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian

1914 – 1917, W.W. Norton & Co., 1988 hardback, 378 pages excluding notes and index

The author conducted research on three continents to write the definitive account of the years Hoover spent creating and directing the Commission for Relief of Belgium. The unprecedented international relief organization provided food to more than nine million Belgian and French citizens trapped between the German army of occupation and the British naval blockade. When the commission completed its work after expending nearly one billion dollars, Herbert Hoover had become a twentieth century hero.

Nash, George H., The Life of Herbert Hoover: Master of Emergencies

1917 – 1918, W.W. Norton & Co., 1996, hardback, 504 pages excluding notes and index

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson chose Herbert Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration. Hoover’s goal was to stimulate food production, control food prices, and create surpluses for export to American allies. While becoming prominent in this nation’s war effort, Hoover became part of domestic policies forging a transition from a decentralized economy to one regulated by price controls and governmental restraint.