INSCRIBED BY HERBERT HOOVER

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 of Hoover's argument against the New Deal, inscribed: "The Compliments 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.

Book with mild offsetting to endpapers, rectangle of sunning to front board, slight soiling to cloth. Dust jacket with a bit of light wear and toning. An extremely good inscribed copy.