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Portrait of Herbert Hoover

US Presidents · 20th century

Herbert Hoover

1874–1964 · American

Republican

In office: 1929–1933

Herbert Hoover, an Iowa-born Quaker and wealthy mining engineer, won international fame organising food relief in Belgium during the First World War and served as Secretary of Commerce before becoming the 31st president. The Wall Street Crash struck months into his term, and his response to the Great Depression was widely judged inadequate: shanty towns were mocked as "Hoovervilles". He lost heavily to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 but lived another three decades in public service.

How to spot them

  • ▸The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression; 'Hoovervilles'
  • ▸The Smoot–Hawley Tariff (1930) and the dispersal of the Bonus Army (1932)
  • ▸A mining engineer who translated Agricola's De re metallica with his wife Lou Henry
  • ▸The first president born west of the Mississippi (West Branch, Iowa)
  • ▸Hoover Dam; the Hoover Institution at Stanford

In office

The Wall Street Crash (1929)

The stock market collapsed in October, seven months after his inauguration

The Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act (1930)

Sharply raised import duties, provoking retaliation abroad

'Hoovervilles' (1930s)

Shanty towns of homeless people, named mockingly after him

Dispersal of the Bonus Army (1932)

Troops under Douglas MacArthur drove First World War veterans out of their Washington camp

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)

Federal agency lending to banks, railways and businesses

'The Star-Spangled Banner' becomes the national anthem (1931)

He signed the act making it official

Quick-fire facts

  • •The 31st President of the United States
  • •Born in West Branch, Iowa; orphaned young and raised partly in Oregon
  • •A member of Stanford University's first graduating class (1895)
  • •Lived in Tianjin, China, during the Boxer Rebellion (1900)
  • •Headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the US Food Administration during the First World War
  • •With his wife Lou Henry Hoover he translated Agricola's De re metallica from Latin (1912)
  • •Chaired the Hoover Commissions on reorganising the executive branch under Truman and Eisenhower (1947–1955)
  • •Died in New York in 1964, over 31 years after leaving office

Drill it — 6 cards

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Sources