Hoover, Herbert Clark 1874-1964
31st President of the USA

Born of Quaker parentage in West Branch, Iowa, and orphaned at the age of 9, he was trained in mining engineering at Stanford University. He worked in this field in the USA, Australia, China (during the Boxer rising) and founded his own successful mining firm in 1908. He became involved in relief activities in Europe during World War I, supervising the evacuation of stranded Americans, raising private funds to aid war-devastated Belgium, and directing voluntary rationing in the USA. His skilful administration of these ambitious projects made him a popular public figure and opened the way to a political career. As Secretary of Commerce (1921-29) under Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted regulation of the radio and aviation industries and helped initiate such engineering projects as the St Lawrence Seaway and the Boulder (later Hoover) Dam. He became the Republican presidential nominee in 1928, defeating Democratic candidate Al Smith to win the presidency. His administration (1929-33) was overshadowed by the Great Depression, beginning with the stock market crash in October 1929. His call for private relief rather than large-scale government programmes and his reserved, formal demeanour led to the perception that he lacked compassion for the sufferings of the US people. His popularity plummeted, and the shanty towns that sprang up around the country were called Hoovervilles after him. Though he did initiate some public relief efforts later enlarged in Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal, notably the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, he was defeated in his re-election bid by Roosevelt in 1932. He retired to private life until World War II, when he organized civilian relief operations in Europe. He later headed the Hoover Commissions (1947-49, 1953-55), which studied the executive branch of government and suggested many administrative and policy reforms later adopted.

Bibliography: David Burner, Herbert Hoover (1979)