A Wealth of Ideas

The remarkable collections of the Hoover Institution Archives are for the first time showcased for the reading public in a large-format, generously illustrated book. Drawing upon a vast trove of rare historical documents and artifacts, A Wealth of Ideas tells the story of the institution and its treasures. The result is a visually attractive, engagingly written, and altogether thought-provoking book that also stands as a work of quality scholarship.

The subject matter is epic in scale, covering the great wars, revolutions, political and intellectual movements, and personalities of the twentieth century. The author, Bertrand Patenaude, has assembled an impressive cast of characters, including many of the most influential figures of the age, among them Woodrow Wilson and Leon Trotsky, Friedrich von Hayek and Henry Ford, Karl R. Popper and Joseph Goebbels, Chiang Kai-shek and Boris Pasternak, and Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The book contains nearly 300 illustrations, including political posters, photographs, film stills, original artwork, typed and holograph public and private manuscripts, letters, and diaries.