Reviews for Herbert Hoover - a Reminiscent Biography

The average rating for Herbert Hoover - a Reminiscent Biography based on 2 reviews is 1 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-29 00:00:00 John Johansen I've always been a Biography fan. I like reading about a certain kind of famous person; usually the kind who are a little off-beat. Hoover is looked on as somone who did a poor job of getting the U.S. recovered from the Great Depression and that's about it, so he fits the category of off-beat, I think. Through my wife, I'm actually related to the guy, so I thought I'd read a book about him. After all, here's a guy who is the only "engineer President," he's credited with saving a lot of Europe from starvation immediately following WWI, and a good number of other things that make him potentially someone from whom we all could learn, and he's got that "engineer" thing going for him, to boot! Unfortunately, while I wanted to learn something about Herb, this was not the book to do it with. The author was friends with Mr. Hoover from the time they were at Stanford together and the book was written in a congenial narrative form. Made it a little like watching a soap opera in "silent movie" format. That didn't make it a very enticing read. I struggled through it, because I like to finish what I start, but that's the only reason I got through it.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-22 00:00:00 Mikel Rhodent After 200 pages of it...my stomach couldn't handle any more of Will Irwin's frantic adulation of HH. I'm sure he did a good thing in Belgium before the US entered WWI - but really...enough is enough. It nearly approaches the level of 'worship' that is common with some of today's political syncophants. If you want to read about how HH and his many helpers (who get almost none of the credit) were able to feed starving Belgians and Frenchmen - then read just those chapters and forget about the rest of the book. I guess the most disappointing point for me was that this "Reminiscent Biography" as Irwin titled it covered only HH from birth to his service as the Secretary of Commerce. I had picked this one as the Hoover book in my quest to read presidential bios from 1 to 43. I was sadly disappointed. Still searching for a good Hoover... Gene