INSCRIBED BY HERBERT HOOVER, FIRST EDITION OF CHALLENGE TO LIBERTY

HOOVER, Herbert. The Challenge to Liberty. New York and London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $1650.

First edition, inscribed by President Hoover, "To Mrs. Arthur W. Page, With the Kind Regards of Herbert Hoover," in scarce original dust jacket.

Following Franklin Roosevelt's victory in the presidential election of 1932, Herbert Hoover retired to write this challenge to the New Deal, in which he "maintained that the New Dealers had abandoned 'the heritage of liberty' in leading the country on a futile quest for 'security.' Condemning the growth of regimentation, bureaucracy and centralization… Hoover raised an important issue when he claimed that big government would attempt to protect itself from criticism by blocking the free flow of information and therefore represented an insidious threat to freedom of speech and the press" (Polenberg, 114-5). First issue with Scribner's "A" on copyright page; published in blue cloth (this copy) and in red cloth, no priority established. The husband of the recipient, Arthur W. Page, was Vice President of public relations for AT&T from 1927 to 1946, and is described on the website of the Society named after him as "the dean of public relations and communications."

Book near-fine, dust jacket gently toned, with only shallow wear to spine ends and corners, near-fine.