| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace. By John C. Culver and John Hyde. (New York: Norton, 2000. xii, 608 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-393-04645-1.)

John C. Culver and John Hyde get perhaps as close as possible to understanding one of the nation's most elusive political figures: Henry A. Wallace. Culver, a former U.S. representative and senator from Iowa, and Hyde, a journalist who worked in the Des Moines Register's Washington bureau, demonstrate a solid grasp of Wallace's local agrarian roots as well as the workings of national politics. The result is an excellent biography, readable and informative. 1

Wallace was marvelously well qualified to serve as secretary of agriculture during Franklin D. Roosevelt's first two terms; indeed, the authors argue, his pioneering work with hybrid corn constituted "the first of the world's 'green revolutions.'" But, as was so often true with Wallace, paradoxes and ironies abounded. The revolution in hybrid maize, "the central achievement of Wallace's life," sought to produce more corn, while the policies he forged as secretary of agriculture during the Great Depression focused on producing less. Under Wallace, the Department of Agriculture was a centerpiece of New Deal energy, innovation, and progressive action that "constituted a sea change in the relationship between farmers and their government." Wallace's use of "production controls, marketing assistance, and income subsidies" would stand "as one of the boldest social experiments ever undertaken in the United States." Culver and Hyde deal effectively with the nature of Wallace's policies and the accompanying bureaucratic infighting. . . .

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