1932: A Very Eventful Year

Author and former Los Angeles Times staff writer Scott Martelle discusses his new book, 1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America (Citadel/Kensington Books), in which he explores the national backdrop to that year’s pivotal presidential campaign between the incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover and New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat. The Great Depression was the most pressing issue facing the nation, but here Martelle explores an array of other issues that defined the times, including the fight to Prohibition, the occupation of Washington by more than 20,000 Great War veterans seeking early payment of promised bonuses, farmers’ strikes across the Midwest, and the first stirrings of the Dust Bowl. Using diary entries from average Americans and newsreel-style inserts compiling top headlines throughout the year, Martelle offers a wide-angle view of a nation brought to its economic knees, and the election that helped it regain its footing.