Herbert Hoover
By William E. Leuchtenburg
Times Books, 186 pages, $22
In 10 months, the nation will celebrate, if that’s the proper word, the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Depression. A lot can happen (a lot had better happen) between now and Oct. 24, the date in 1929 when the stock market Read More
Lincoln and Jefferson, not to mention Jesus Christ, are still ahead of Franklin D. Roosevelt as compelling, complex figures fated to endure never-ending revisionist biographical inquiry—historical fact vying with gospel. But F.D.R. is closing the gap, edged forward by powerful images and tropes: a paralyzed man saving a paralyzed nation, a traitor to his class. Read More
Bette Davis Keeps Watch
Over Soho’s V.I.P.-less Cub Room
If you are a close follower of restaurant reviews, you might think the business is all about novelty-new chefs serving exotic new ingredients in new and ever wilder settings. And since trendy bars and fashionable restaurants have a notoriously short life span in the city, Read More
As the ranks of the Herberts dwindle, the time has come to pronounce a requiem, extending the heartfelt sympathies of this Herbert to the other Herberts still wandering, bereft and ridiculed, doomed to represent stodginess in a hostile world of Bruces, Neils and unruly Jacobs. Other Herberts, I feel your name.
Everybody knows that babies’ Read More
