Customer Reviews

Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady (Modern First Ladies)

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Since her husband is now permanently associated with the Great Depression, and subsequently banished to history's 'bad presidents' list, Nancy Beck Young's book accomplishes a formidable task: encouraging readers to find something positive about the Hoovers, especially Lou Henry.

Flouting her generation's ideas about what a woman (especially a 'public' woman) loved or did, Lou Henry Hoover was involved with the outdoors, particularly the Girl Scouts. Although this participation does not seem very revolutionary today, it was remarkable for a woman who had grown up when women running around in the outdoors actually was considered a very scandalous activity.

Although she did not have her own radio show or chair a presidential task force, Lou Henry Hoover was a revolutionary force in her own right.

Mrs. Hoover similarly became engaged with private-sector relief efforts which attempted to end the Great Depression, but these proved much less successful than her other projects. Like her husband, Mrs. Hoover could not realize that the private sector lacked the resources to salvage a decimated economy, the same government which printed the nation's money supply would have to step in.

Clearly empathetic towards her subject, Young is also objective enough to avoid romanticizing the Hoover's strong free-market economic beliefs. Her scholarship adds a complexity to both the Hoovers and an understanding of the first lady's constantly evolving role.

A relatively 'traditional' public demeanor ultimately enabled Mrs. Hoover to begin a transition of the "First Lady" role AND "American Womanhood" which her successors are only continuing.

This book gives the history of a woman who doesn't show up in too many history books, which is a shame. While the book could go more in depth, it presents Lou Hoover as an accomplished woman who made many contributions to Americans, most notably the Girl Scouts. She is presented as the anti-Elinor Roosevelt - not in a derogatory way, just a different approach to problems and a different political ideology. In the book Lou Hoover comes across as a devoted wife, an educated woman, and a world traveler. While I would have liked greater levels of detail, the book made me aware of the contributions of a woman whom I had barely heard mentioned. The author has taken an admirable step towards giving Lou Hoover the recognition in American history that she deserves.