Once again George Nash demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Hoover, while assembling the former president's intellectual brief against the New Deal in a style that is both highly readable and faithful to its author’s sometimes quirky standards.

“Herbert Hoover, self-styled crusader, is in full flower in these pages-part memoirist, part polemicist, coupling intimate portraiture with a public history that is profoundly relevant. By turns intimate, humorous, and combative-even occasionally petulant-this last volume of Hoover’s memoirs will interest historians and general readers alike.” -DAVID KENNEDY is professor of history emeritus at Stanford University and the author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. It offers touching glimpses into Hoover’s rich personal life and a trenchant critique of the post–New Deal American social contract that amounts to nothing less than the cornerstone of modern conservatism. Nash, The Crusade Years is far more than a simple apologia pro vita sua. Reviews“Superbly introduced and edited by acclaimed Herbert Hoover biographer George H. This is, in short, a remarkable saga told in the former president’s own words and in his own way that will appeal as much to professional historians and political scientists as it will lay readers interested in history. The pages of this memoir recount the story of Hoover’s later life, his abiding political philosophy, and his vision of the nation that gave him the opportunity for service. Aside from its often feisty account of Hoover’s political activities during the Roosevelt and Truman eras, and its window on Hoover’s private life and campaigns for good causes, The Crusade Years invites readers to reflect on the factors that made his extraordinarily fruitful postpresidential years possible. This work recounts Hoover’s family life after March 4, 1933, his myriad philanthropic interests, and, most of all, his unrelenting “crusade against collectivism” in American life. OverviewCovering an eventful period in Herbert Hoover’s career-and, more specifically, his life as a political pugilist from 1933 to 1955-this previously unknown memoir was composed and revised by the 31st president during the 1940s and 1950s-and then, surprisingly, set aside.

The memoirs of herbert hoover