Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 –
October 20, 1964) was an American politician, businessman, and engineer who
served as the 31st president of the United States from
1929 to 1933. A member of the Republican Party, he
held office during the onset of the Great Depression.
Before serving as president, Hoover led the Commission for Relief in
Belgium, served as the director of the U.S. Food Administration,
and served as the third U.S. secretary of commerce.
Born to a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa, he grew up in Oregon.[1] Hoover took a position with a London-based
mining company after graduating from Stanford University in
1895. After the outbreak of World War I, he became the head of the Commission for Relief in
Belgium, an international relief organization that provided food to occupied
Belgium. When the U.S. entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to lead the Food
Administration, and Hoover became known as the country's "food czar".
After the war, Hoover led the American Relief Administration,
which provided food to the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe. Hoover's
war-time service made him a favorite of many progressives, and he
unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 1920
presidential election. After the 1920 election, newly elected
Republican president Warren G. Harding appointed Hoover as Secretary of
Commerce; Hoover continued to serve under President Calvin Coolidge after Harding died in 1923. Hoover was an
unusually active and visible cabinet member, becoming known as "Secretary
of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments". He was
influential in the development of air travel and radio. He led the federal
response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Hoover won the Republican nomination in the 1928
presidential election, and decisively defeated the Democratic
candidate, Al Smith. The stock market crashed shortly
after Hoover took office, and the Great Depression became the central issue of
his presidency. Hoover pursued a variety of policies in an attempt to lift the
economy, but opposed directly involving the federal government in relief
efforts. In the midst of the economic crisis, Hoover was decisively defeated by
Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in
the 1932
presidential election. After leaving office, Hoover's retirement was
over 31 years long, one of the longest retirements of any U.S president, and he
authored numerous works in subsequent decades. Hoover became increasingly conservative in
this time, and he strongly criticized Roosevelt's foreign policy and New Deal domestic agenda. In the 1940s and 1950s,
Hoover's public reputation was slightly rehabilitated, because he served in
various assignments for presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower,
including as chairman of the Hoover Commission. Though he managed somewhat to rehabilitate
his legacy, Hoover is still widely regarded as a below-average U.S. president,
and most polls of historians and political scientists rank him in the bottom third overall.