Interstate 80 is one of the nation’s great trucking routes, stretching from Teaneck, New Jersey, straight through the heartland to San Francisco, California. It approximates the route of the first transcontinental railroad, the first transcontinental highway (the Lincoln Highway), and the first transcontinental airmail route, which is to say it was built to move vast amounts of traffic efficiently from one end of the country to the other, not for scenery, not for dallying. The middle sections of the I-80 are particularly bereft of distractions unless you like corn. The road urges you forward, east or west, swiftly and conveniently, stopping only for gas or food at somewhere like the World’s Largest Truckstop outside of Davenport, Iowa, an infinitely more popular landmark than the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, thirty miles to the west.
The Hoover library is tucked into a well-groomed park at the edge of West Branch, Iowa, a town that feels smaller than its population of 2,322. The setting is pleasant, although from any part of the park you can hear the I-80 rumbling a few hundred yards away. Precious little of the traffic bothers to pause and pay its respect to the thirty-first president. When I made the first of my six visits, the library felt like the loneliest place in America. There were more staff than visitors in its corridors. Thankfully, that initial impression did not hold.
I love West Branch, in part because I enjoyed the twelve-hour drives from Toronto, in part because it is an island of presidential pomp in the middle of nowhere, in part because of Reid’s Beans, a delightful little eatery on Main Street, in part because my researches there were far more fruitful than I had anticipated, but mostly because of the great assistance and fellowship I received from the library’s wonderful staff.
Spencer Howard, my main contact at the library, and his colleague Matthew Schaefer, are incredibly knowledgeable and resourceful archivists. They steered me through their vast collections, introduced me to primary and secondary sources I might otherwise have missed, and answered innumerable questions about Hoover, Iowa, its corn, its weather, its politics, and its football. They are two of the most pleasant and interesting people I have ever met in the course of my book work. Spencer read this manuscript and saved me from at least a dozen embarrassing errors. Craig Wright, another archivist whom I came to know in my later visits to West Branch, also provided useful guidance.
Thomas Schwartz, a historian and the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, took me to lunch at Reid’s and generously shared his profound views on Hoover’s life and work. He also read a draft of my manuscript, asked searching questions, and made many comments that were of great benefit to the final product. I thank him with respect and admiration.
The critic, author, and editor David Staines read early chapters of this book and provided invaluable notes and advice, an act of friendship for which I am eternally grateful. Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of several groundbreaking works on the Great Depression, also read a portion of the manuscript and gave me constructive suggestions and wise counsel. The historian Tammy M. Proctor, now at Utah State University, joined me for a lunch at Reid’s Beans, gave me the benefit of her deep knowledge of Hoover and the Great War, and directed me to the Mullendore papers, which were of considerable use to me. Julia Belluz, Kristen Chew, Chris Johnston, and Wesley Beck ably assisted with aspects of my research.
I want to thank my agent, Andrew Wylie, for convincing me to write a life of Hoover, a project I initially resisted, not being a fan of the genre of presidential biography. Andrew also led me to my publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, and in particular to my editor, Andrew Miller, whom he described as one of the great young talents in the business, and he was right. Andrew Miller had the chore of editing a writer who is also an editor and who thinks he knows more than he does about everything from telling a story to organizing a manuscript for production. His patience and professionalism is much appreciated. I could not be happier with his stewardship of this project, and I have enjoyed all of my interactions with him. Thanks also to his excellent assistant, Zakiya Harris.
I have never met George H. Nash, author of the first three volumes of the official Hoover biography, among other important books on Hoover and American conservatism, but I hold him in high esteem. He is peerless among Hoover scholars and his trenchant, trustworthy work was an incredible resource to me in this writing. I would also like to salute Hal Elliott Wert, David Burner, Kendrick Clements, Gary Dean Best, Glen Jeansonne, Eugene Lyons, Craig Lloyd, Ellis Hawley, Joan Hoff Wilson, William Leuchtenburg, and Richard Norton Smith for their salient contributions to the endless task of getting Hoover’s biography right. I have benefited from all of their efforts.
Finally, and most importantly, my deepest gratitude to Tina Leino-Whyte and Thea Whyte for their love and support. Sooner or later I will get them to West Branch.