⛏️Herbert Hoover

31st President · 1929–1933 · Republican

Herbert Hoover came to the presidency with perhaps the most impressive humanitarian resume of any incoming president — he had organized massive food-relief operations during and after World War I that fed tens of millions of Europeans. Seven months into his term, the stock market crashed. His limited response to the Great Depression made him a synonym for government inaction and he lost 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide.

Engineer and Humanitarian

Hoover was orphaned by age nine and raised by Quaker relatives in Oregon. He studied geology at Stanford, became a mining engineer, and made a fortune running mining operations on four continents. When World War I broke out, he organized the evacuation of 120,000 Americans stuck in Europe, then led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which fed millions of civilians in German-occupied Europe. Later as U.S. Food Administrator and head of the American Relief Administration, he directed food relief that reached roughly 350 million people in 21 countries — a scale of humanitarian work arguably never matched.

The Great Engineer

Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge, where he standardized industrial practices, regulated radio and aviation, and championed American commerce. He was the clear Republican choice in 1928 and defeated Democrat Al Smith decisively, promising "a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage."

The Crash

On October 29, 1929 — Black Tuesday — the U.S. stock market collapsed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 89% of its value over the next three years. Unemployment reached 25%. Thousands of banks failed. Hoover, like most contemporary economists, believed the economy would self-correct. He signed the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 (widely considered to have worsened global depression), created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend to banks and states, and supported public works — but he rejected direct federal relief to individuals.

Bonus Army

In summer 1932, some 20,000 World War I veterans marched on Washington demanding early payment of service bonuses. Hoover ordered the U.S. Army under General Douglas MacArthur to remove them from federal property. MacArthur exceeded his orders, attacking the Bonus Army encampment with cavalry, tanks, and tear gas. Photographs of the rout horrified the country and sealed Hoover's fate. He lost 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt in a 472-to-59 electoral landslide.

Hoover Trivia

• Hoover lived 31 years and 230 days after leaving the presidency — the longest post-presidency of any president until Jimmy Carter broke the record in 2012.
• Harry Truman brought him back for government service in the 1950s to reorganize the federal executive branch (the "Hoover Commissions").
• Hoover Dam on the Colorado River was named in his honor in 1930 — renamed Boulder Dam during FDR's term and restored to Hoover Dam in 1947.
• He was the first president born west of the Mississippi River.

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