Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower ― A Documentary History

This volume offers core selections from and analysis of primary source materials documenting the uneasy collaboration between two iconic Republican US presidents, Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower. Given their shared conservative philosophy and similar criticisms of the bloated excesses of the New Deal, one might assume that the two men had a warm relationship, but their interactions were overwhelmingly formal and exhibited little in the way of collegiality and warmth. Nonetheless, they found ample opportunity to work together in common cause in the years after World War II, and discussed much of contemporary relevance, from the contentious 1952 Republican nomination fight to the establishment of the second Hoover Commission to reorganize the Executive Branch to Hoover's last official assignment on behalf of the US as representative to the 1958 World's Fair. Included here are letters, reports, and telegrams that the two men sent directly to one another; diary entries and memoranda that document their meetings; relevant passages from speeches and press commentary; and candid comments that the two men made about each other in letters to friends and associates.

Timothy Walch is Director Emeritus of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and the author or editor of seventeen previous books on various historical topics including Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Documentary History (1998), Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman: A Documentary History (1992), and Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover (2003). He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CSPAN, and other networks and is frequently quoted on the role of former presidents in public life as well as on the growing importance of the vice presidency in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today.