Hoover departed from Washington in March 1933 , bitter at his election loss and continuing unpopularity . As Coolidge , Harding , Wilson , and Taft had all died during the 1920s or early 1930s , Hoover was the sole living ex-president from 1933 to 1953 . Hoover and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944 , at which point Hoover began to live permanently at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City . During the 1930s , Hoover increasingly self-identified as a conservative . He closely followed national events after leaving public office , becoming a constant critic of Franklin Roosevelt . In response to continued attacks on his character and presidency , Hoover wrote more than two dozen books , including '' The Challenge to Liberty '' ( 1934 ) , which harshly criticized Roosevelt 's New Deal . Hoover described the New Deal 's National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration as " fascistic " , and he called the 1933 Banking Act a " move to gigantic socialism . " Only 58 when he left office , Hoover held out hope for another term as president throughout the 1930s . At the 1936 Republican National Convention , Hoover 's speech attacking the New Deal was well received , but the nomination went to Kansas Governor Alf Landon . In the general election , Hoover delivered numerous well-publicized speeches on behalf of Landon , but Landon was defeated by Roosevelt . Though Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn , Senator Arthur Vandenberg and other Republicans urged the still-unpopular Hoover to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt 's proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 . At the 1940 Republican National Convention , Hoover again hoped for the presidential nomination , but it went to the internationalist Wendell Willkie , who lost to Roosevelt in the general election
1936 Republican National Convention
1936 Republican National Convention
Herbert Hoover