American Individualism (signed by President Hoover) Hardcover - 1922

First Edition, First Printing. Signed by President Hoover on the front free endpaper. Very good plus. With scarce, first state dustjacket, (with no review on front dj panel), in very good plus condition; small chip and crease on lower back cover and edge, and a bit toned. Near fine with publisher's original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. Content fine, with pages and text bright, clean and unmarred.

A collection of political essays written by Hoover six years before he sought the presidency. A short but important book, arguing for American individualism, 'our most precious possession', and against governmental encroachment on personal freedom, initiative and enterprise' (Hazlitt). American Individualism was the future 31st president's first political book, and the first aimed at a popular audience, following only a book on mining and two reports to the US Food Administration. Hoover was at the time the third US Secretary of Commerce, then one of the most influential positions in the country. Hoover felt, with communist and socialist movements gaining ground worldwide, that the American individualist and free market position needed to be stated in a coherent form. The book, derived from an essay published in the magazine World's Work earlier the same year, helped to establish him as a political thinker of vision and as a firm upholder of the American free market system, an image which aided his election as President preceding the Depression in 1928, and perhaps too contributed to his defeat post-Depression in 1932. Hazlitt, Free Man's Library, p. 92. Octavo. A wonderful copy of this important work.