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