Both Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt were giants in public life. From strikingly different backgrounds, and sharply contrasting styles and approaches, each man left his unique mark upon the presidency. This collection of historical materials chronicles the connections between the lives of Hoover and Roosevelt from their early collaboration during the Wilson administration to their heated competition during the 1932 presidential election and beyond. Letters, reports, and telegrams between the two men and their wives tell a story of both communication and miscommunication between 1917 and 1945.

In 12 chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion, the editors present documents which reveal the sometimes tense relations between Hoover and Roosevelt. Chapter one includes materials from their work on housing and homebuilding issues during the Harding and Coolidge administrations. The next two chapters focus upon Hoover's presidency and Roosevelt's rise as govenor of New York. Chapter four recounts the strong rivalry during the 1932 campaign, and that rivalry is even more apparent in chapter five. The remaining six chapters include material from Roosevelt's tenure as president. These documents reveal Hoover's attitudes toward Roosevelt's New Deal domestic policies, the threatening international situation of the 1930s, and U.S. involvement in the Second World War.

TIMOTHY WALCH is Director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. Previously, Walch was editor of Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and co-director of the Modern Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. Educated at the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University, Walch is the author or editor of 16 books, including At the President's Side (1997), Parish School (1996), Immigrant America (1994), and Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman (1992). For his professional and scholarly work, Walch has received awards from the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Catholic Press Association, and the Teachers College of Columbia University.

DWIGHT M. MILLER came to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in 1964 after three years as an assistant archivist in the Presidential Papers Section of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. As Senior Archivist, his experience at the Hoover Library includes co-editing Historical Materials in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and compiling and assisting in editing The Public Papers of the Presidents: Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933, 4 vols., and Proclamations and Executive Orders: Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933, 2 vols. Most recently he co-edited with Timothy Walch Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman: A Documentary History (1992).