The very belated publication of (2011), and scant attention paid to Herbert Hoover’s own magnum opus, Freedom Betrayed, has continued to obfuscate this great, quintessential American’s unequaled championing of Western, Judeo-Christian-based liberty—the antithesis of FDR-era statism, and its ugly, living legacy.
Herbert Hoover died just over 50-years ago, on October 20, 1964.
Below are concluding extracts from journalist Eugene Lyons’ elegantly written biography of Hoover, re-published in 1964, which capture Hoover’s unique essence:
What has impressed me profoundly as I studied the data of his life is Hoover’s wholeness and genuineness. There is nothing phony, nothing petty, nothing spurious in his story. He has not lived with an eye on opinion polls and philosophical fashions. His view of life and public affairs has not been an improvisation of expediency or a rationalization of self-interest. It is deep-rooted in the American soil. It has evolved naturally, honestly, consistently in the American experience. It is indivisible from our national heritage. Rarely has such a capacious intelligence as Hoover’s been combined with such a great heart and robust spirit. Even more rarely, the democratic process being what it is, has a man so opulently endowed reached the Presidency. Herbert Hoover is a great monolithic figure. Time has washed off the mud with which he was bespattered—fortunately while he was still alive and active. The granite of integrity underneath became obvious even to the less perceptive of his countrymen.
