In 1932, a significant year in American history, the country was experiencing turmoil, natural disaster, bubbling political radicalism, and a rise of dangerous forces ushering in a new era of global conflict. The Depression had laid waste to the economy, with one in four workers out of a job, countless families facing eviction, and banks shutting down as desperate depositors withdrew their savings.
Amid this turmoil loomed a choice in the presidential election between two men with very different visions of America. Republican Herbert Hoover, the incumbent president, embraced small government and a largely unfettered free market, while New York Democratic Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that the path out of the economic crisis required government intervention and a national sense of shared purpose.
Former Los Angeles Times staff writer Scott Martelle places that presidential campaign within the context of Americans’ daily lives and the significant issues of the day in his book 1932: FDR, Hoover and the Dawn of a New America (Kensington), available for purchase.
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