then you would notice upfront that you could not drive a mile without seeing the trump sign. [inaudible conversations] >> i need water. >> here as the programming curator welcoming you here

also hear old who is the director of roosevelt house in albany this evening. here to talk about kevin his biography at hoover and also in the to interview you can imagine this is a day house that herbert hoover historically or in the present day talked about often so in the introduction to his book he says indictment and advocacy shape and overwhelm the story of the man of herbert hoover. because franklin and eleanor roosevelt lived here in new

york during the 1932 campaign. and then you might have heard them interpret them. we met earlier in the franklin and eleanor roosevelt library which is where they met with prospective cabinet members after the 32 election. we were talking about what they were doing. so as the reviews had said that it was the intensely researched thoughtful resurrection of a brilliant man. we are curious of his interpretation with his role in the great depression. one of the wonderful things that amity also brings a

different perspective applause for her. [applause] but one thing that she wrote in 2009 that like no other president roosevelt inspired those in despair that the economist worthy of emulation we are happy to bring that perspective to you and have her here as well. with four best colors including the forgotten man. that was also a new york times bestseller.

it was taxed and a cartoon version but even graphic novelist refer to their work as cartoon so that is my defense. also author of the best billing biography of calvin coolidge we do not hear too much about also the chair of the board of trustees from the presidential foundation. before i turned it over to her i want to say we have the great-granddaughter of part one -- herbert hoover we are delighted to have her here for this conversation. thank you for being here and then after that we invite you tears to the former dining rooms of the house where he

will be signing copies of his book. now we turn it over to amity and can. [applause] i always knew roosevelt was relationship people and entertainers and we feel very welcome here and we thank you for that. my guest is canned white but there are the newspaper innovators to call into that second category.

that is a very broad range. and that we always admired and with dozens of magazines. so it takes a great flexibility and also the author of william randolph hearst and now the extraordinary life in extraordinary times. and then to be called the monumental.

and that is a badge of honor. and as we speak limit you as fast as we can and then open to questions. but then the numbers 36 looking up at anna college. some of these early polls why hoover? >> it is a pleasure to be here this evening and share the stage with amity who was one of my favorite authors even if she didn't pick out one

negative word in the four-page review of the new yorker. [laughter] i didn't want to do hoover originally. but belgium and the first world war. i am not a fan of presidential biographies that just isn't my genre but my editor talked me into it. but as soon as i started looking i didn't know anything about the guy that a failed president number 36.

look at hoover's life. that is probably smaller than the average one car garage and five people were growing up in there. coming from nothing and orphaned at the age of nine. but then shift around to different branches of the family before finally getting off to stanford university he was actually the first student graduating with a geology degree and goes to australia in his early 20s to find the biggest goldmine up in history

and then pulls off the biggest mining transaction then he goes to london and he sets himself up and makes a fortune. then the first world war happens and emerges as the international humanitarian when america enters returning but when the war ends and then we negotiate the first i treaty.

but then the new york times said the closest things to a dictator. he came back to america for the bursae treaty and for president unsuccessfully serving as commerce secretary and then of course his own term in office and it was an amazing time to be president but really in the developed world if he occurs loses his office only to be directed and

then finishes his days in the florida keys writing three at a time during this gorgeous as soon as i realized that so much and so many highs and so many lows, i was stunned i stumbled on to this figure that what we have seen from the star is an amazing human being.

>> that was wonderful now just a few questions for the interview part tell us how ever figured out his career. to be the best paid young man of his generation because also the best situated who could add the most value so tell us about that for came out of college that with the drive that was almost inhuman and would succeed at any cost.

one view that hoover has his detractors he and his supporters looking at that business career like horatio alger's. so by virtue of his character finds his way in the world he moves more to the robber barons than horatio alger's and hired stanford buddies. there are letters that exist hoover writing to his brother in california how he was managing one says i have wilson here he will dig this new line in record time and if

not he will be back u.s. so fast you will not know where to eat that is how he dealt with his friend there are reports of been in china in negotiations to buy mining properties with whoever would not help him get his way. he was he was but the interesting thing is while they were doing that they also were doing some good in the world and then to make his

fortune he was paying the staff and donating those that were picked up and most remarkably the guy in london who is an accountant that embezzled a ton of money almost put out of business went to jail and hoover decided so he was doing a lot of dastardly thing but at the same time doing a lot of good simultaneously.

>> but there is a fee we will come back to you were on hoover's team can see that very early but in a certain area of mining but at a relatively young age but then with world war i and then to

be operating outside of the law. >> he pretty much made his fortune through his mid to late 30s and decided he wanted to be more than a rich man. talk about the personality of the ruthless businessman and the guy who wanted to do good. but one of the first of the events of the war is that germany invaded france to occupy belgium and hoover

learned from those in london one of those consequences of the german occupation was food supply was cut off and imported by 80% of the students those supply lines were blocked by those that hated belgium and the germans did not see it as this job hoover spent the next years there was no surplus cash you get from all around the world

that with that humanitarian endeavor and his because they did not want the belgians to be fed by those external forces were to be dependent on anybody but the germans that the british did not want them pulling into belgium because they thought he lied to them.

all of the reprehensible practices and with the cause of some are in the neighborhood. >> and then to thank him. and they had to show that gratitude but it was fungible.

and then to have the strong financial expertise that basically a bunch you did not quite know and especially you have a lot of anger france will not let germany get away without being impaled. most of the people are intriguing and will equal who are supposed to the world and observed that even if they

found that would have given us the good piece. tell us about that. >> one of the things they had difficulty with was stopping the war. with the germany, france their attitude was think god war is over or where things had ended

let's make sure people are fed and get the factories going with that european recovery was good but then those financial system requires a stable europe. and then to force the negotiating table in those practical terms to work constructively to rehabilitate rather than continuing to fight. >> and those that are no then

the chances are pretty low. and then from outside politics is u.s. history. and how we ended up with one party instead of the other fed the world? who has the needs of every nation and keeps the keys to conservation? but do not doubt those who

doubt hoover but do not doubt those who doubt hoover that politics was very tribal activity than hoover would not belong to any of the conventional tribes liberal or conservative or international. he had his own view and wanted to be true to that more or less as a steppingstone to his ambition to be president.

not ever have good relationships with the party establishment and always viewed as something as an outsider. >> that is something margaret hoover has written about with american individualism that was a manifesto. >> show to believe and in the first place.

it was not as a fair type of notion everything that great happened in the life of the country came at the beginning from individual initiative and with that society should do everything they could and with that striving and hard work that would allow a person that he believed government should be set up to do that with every human being and to make sure they had basic access to necessities and everything

else they needed to get a fair start in life. >> but sensible and admirable you of america. >> but to be the rescuer that hoover was commerce secretary under harding and but then not quite powerful enough because

extremely that you put the lighthouse on and you put the fishes to bed at night (that he was a man of business and really utilize that petition to cause changes could you say a little bit about that? the hardest part because there is so much to talk about with so much material frankly i didn't know how that is why in the first two --dash but for

radio and the traffic systems and laid the nothing he had his hands in the government. called secretary of commerce in undersecretary of everything else. and was kind of greedy about the scope of his responsibility and but he had

and and with the and those great checks. >> traditionally was the commerce department and to in a bullish and progressive they don't mean that in the political sense that we are

doing constructive things on behalf of the american people. >> talk about the moment of television. >> actually he was the first man on television they did not even know what it was called. >> between washington and new york with hoover sitting in his office at the same time with the front pages of all the newspapers probably still before it became commercially popular but that is also the

philosophy of government. does that cause change horse show it change but because he more than most word grass that possibility and the stock was very high one of the famously high socks and so the question

and how he interacted with president coolidge but something that you wrote to show how effective and modern and popular but it was clear that hoover wasn't going to stop. what about coolidge? only elected his first times

so this is between the two men a very different type but she heard rumors pushing the president a little too much and said he she wrote in the family letter if anybody is persuaded he certainly would not do it directly or indirectly while calvin coolidge was thinking about it. and we are all distant tenuous of our vanity and pride so i thought that was very compelling that hoover would never plot against coolidge

that one of the letters to persons but but then the long letters to friends explaining? so if you want to know what the mood was in the family go to do in her letters to her children then that is where you see what is going on in the household. to the extent one -- extend she is a good source but unreliable. because hoover was ambitious and had started thinking about replacing harding in his first term with that moment he was elected when he would replace

coolidge and was ambitious. after the midterms in 26 he started to actively organize a campaign with the campaign team all the time whenever leukemia around they would stop talking. lou really didn't like the fact was so ambitious but he

was just climbing up the slippery pole and being dragged up there but was a man with ambition. but that was not the case. getting along very well with coolidge but he was in a hurry their relationship soured and that is where he gets quotes about the boy wonder and how he had given me nothing but bad advice for the first several years the relationship never cover -- we covered and

then the last year of his regime he did not say he would retire even after he announced his retirement by refusing to endorse hoover and he was scared to death and he would have to stand aside. >> exactly it isn't always given to us to pick our successor. but to the great depression. >> did you write a letter? [laughter] in 1928 hoover wins the election he was a popular

republican and in 1929 he is inaugurated goes back to massachusetts the stock market goes double then it crashes the end of the temper that is the beginning of the crash it goes on and on through that presidency that is so dramatic historians say that is his fault so you lay out the case he almost rescued the economy and that those successors to

put that back into a tailspin. looking at what those successors did. >> i wasn't going to talk about this but since you brought it up, after the markets crashed in 1929, hoover did a series of things designed to support he saw that in past depression was that people were afraid to trust the economy after the market crash. so after the crash of 29 he

called the businessman to washington to have a stock market crash with all of those in the federal bank and count on this to be short but then to share the pain with your workers and labor agreed it would not go on strike and in the wake of the market crash and everything would be fine. hoover was applauded and then

to go to the washington post or the herald tribune they were all unanimous and they credited him to do something new with presidency that they call adding a psychological dimension he was encouraging people essentially saying you have nothing to fear but fear itself. and in this way they would get through the crisis together. unfortunately it wasn't over in six months. it went on and on with that new dimension with european economy and not spread from

germany to the u.k. to america and he undertook the series very innovative and politically daring to rewrite the terms of the bursae agreement to suspend all debt payments and to suspend all the reparations payments to put all of the use of who owed what to whom and put them to the side until the economy healed and he was given enormous credit but again it did not last and the economy

continue down. the four. . . . .