The Crusade Years, 1933–1955

Herbert Hoover lived a phenomenally productive life, including more than half a century in one form or another of public service. It was a record that in sheer scope and duration may be without parallel in American history. Although he left the presidency in 1933 a virtual pariah, maligned and hated like no other American in his lifetime, he slowly rose from the ashes of his political downfall. He shone brightly through the final phase of his career as a former president. For the next thirty-one-and-one-half years, in fair political weather and foul, the former chief executive became, in his self-image, a crusader: a tireless and visible castigator of the dominant political trends of his day. He behaved as a committed ideological warrior more persistently and more fervently than any other former president in our history. That eventful period of his life is the main subject of The Crusade Years . This volume is the "missing link" in Hoover's memoirs: the final brick in a literary edifice that he began to build nearly seventy-five years ago. In its pages we learn the story of his later life, of his abiding political philosophy, and of his vision of the land of liberty that gave him the opportunity for service. But perhaps the most charming feature of this book is Hoover's depiction of his private life after his presidency--a side of his existence that he rarely permitted the world to observe. In the first part of this volume readers will discover tender reminiscences of Hoover's wife and sons, his passion for fishing, and his membership in the Bohemian Club that gave him surcease from "dull care" for more than fifty years. In these pages we also find amusing vignettes of his travels by auto in the American West in the 1930s, including the times the former president of the United States was stopped for speeding. In The Crusade Years we catch a glimpse of Hoover at peace as well as at "war." It is a remarkable saga told in his own words, his way.