It has been said that Herbert Hoover was responsible for saving more lives than any other person in history with his efforts in the Commission of Relief in Belgium. This side of Hoover is the focus of Nash's comprehensive volume.
At the outbreak of World War I, Hoover was a wealthy mining engineer living in London. In a short time, he became the founder and brilliant director of an unprecedented international relief organization, which provided desperately needed food to more than 9,000,000 Belgian and French citizens trapped between the German army of occupation and the British naval blockade. By 1919, when his Commission for Relief in Belgium closed its operations it had expended nearly $1 billion―and had created a twentieth century hero. By then, Hoover had embarked on the "slippery road of public life," which eventually led him to the White House door. This book―based on research conducted on three continents―is the second volume of Dr. Nash's definitive account of Hoover's life.
George H. Nash, a frequent contributor of articles on American conservatism, Herbert Hoover, and related topics, lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
