About this item
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a year in American history that still resonates today, 1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America tells the story of a battered nation fighting for its own future amid the depths of the Great Depression. . At the start of 1932, the nation's worst economic crisis has left one-in-four workers without a job, countless families facing eviction, banks shutting down as desperate depositors withdraw their savings, and growing social and political unrest from urban centers to the traditionally conservative rural heart of the country. Amid this turmoil, a political decision looms that will determine the course of the nation. It is a choice between two men with very diferent visions of America: Incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover with his dogmatic embrace of small government and a largely unfettered free market, and New York's Democratic Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his belief that the path out of the economic crisis requires government intervention in the economy and a national sense of shared purpose.
About the Author
A veteran journalist and member of the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Martelle also writes books primarily about overlooked people and events from history. His newest is . Previous works include (2012) , about the rise and tremendous fall of a once-great American city; (2011) , about the first of the Cold War-era Smith Act anti-communist trials, and (2007) , about a coal strike that left more than 75 people dead in showdowns between miners and the Colorado state militia that didn't end until the U.S. Army was sent in as peacekeepers. .Martelle's journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Sierra Magazine, Los Angeles magazine, Orange Coast magazine and other outlets. He has taught journalism and writing at Chapman University and the University of California-Irvine, and is a regular panelist or moderator at literary, journalism and labor history conferences, guest lecturer at colleges, and has been featured on C-SPAN's Book TV. Martelle also is a co-founder of , a group of freelance journalists.
