born August 10, 1874, West Branch, Iowa, U.S.

died October 20, 1964, New York, New York

Caught in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1900), Hoover displayed his gift for humanitarian rescue by organizing relief for trapped foreigners. He drew on his China experience in 1914, when he helped Americans stranded in Europe at the outbreak of World War I. For the next three years, he headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, overseeing what he called “the greatest charity the world has ever seen” and exhibiting impressive executive ability in helping to procure food for some nine million people whose country had been overrun by the German army. So skilled was Hoover's performance that President Woodrow Wilson (Wilson, Woodrow) appointed him U.S. food administrator for the duration of the war. Relying primarily on voluntary cooperation by the American public, Hoover won wide support for “wheatless” and “meatless” days so that as much of the nation's agricultural output as possible could be sent to soldiers at the front. Recognized by war's end as the “Great Engineer” who could organize resources and personnel to accomplish extraordinary acts of benevolence, Hoover was the natural choice to head the American Relief Administration. The ARA sent shiploads of food and other life-sustaining supplies to war-ravaged Europe—including Germany and Bolshevik Russia during the famine in that country in 1921–23. The outreach to Soviet Russia garnered Hoover much criticism, but he defended his actions on humanitarian grounds, saying, “Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed.”

Cabinet of President Herbert HooverWhen President Coolidge decided not to run for another term in 1928, Hoover received the Republican presidential nomination, despite the objections of conservatives opposed to his departure from the party's traditional laissez-faire philosophy. In the ensuing campaign Hoover ran against New York Governor Alfred E. Smith (Smith, Al) in a contest that focused on prohibition and religion. Smith opposed Prohibition, while Hoover remained equivocal, calling it an “experiment noble in motive.” Smith's Roman Catholicism proved a liability, especially in the South, but the election outcome chiefly reflected the close identification in the public mind of the Republican Party with the enormous prosperity of the 1920s. Hoover captured 21 million votes to Smith's 15 million, 444 electoral votes to his Democratic opponent's 87. (See primary source document: Inaugural Address (Herbert Hoover: Inaugural Address). See also Cabinet of President Herbert Hoover.)

The nation's economy failed to respond to Hoover's initiatives. As the Depression worsened, banks and other businesses collapsed and poverty stalked the land, and the American people began to blame Hoover for the calamity. The homeless began calling their shantytowns “Hoovervilles.” Demands rose for greater government action, especially direct relief payments to the most impoverished of the millions of unemployed. Believing that a dole would prove addictive, sapping the will of Americans to provide for themselves, Hoover adamantly opposed direct federal relief payments to individuals. He was also a firm believer in a balanced budget, unwilling to plunge the federal government into massive debt through a welfare program. This is not to say that Hoover opposed assistance to those in need. For example, expenditures for American Indian schools and health care doubled during his administration, and this earned him accolades as the first president to recognize some basic Indian rights. Hoover also furthered the long-held Quaker interest in prison reform, alleviating prison overcrowding by building new penitentiaries and work camps, expanding educational opportunities for prisoners, and increasing the number of prisoners placed on parole. He also supported RFC loans to states for relief purposes, though this modest program did little to alleviate suffering or to stimulate economic recovery. Also largely ineffective—but sincerely pursued—was Hoover's attempt to defuse international tensions by promoting disarmament negotiations at the London Naval Conference of 1930. Quaker pacifism undoubtedly spurred Hoover's interest in the arms race and international disarmament, but, like his relief schemes on the home front that could hardly suppress or contain the Depression, these efforts failed to reduce world tensions or to prevent Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

Hoover also made some critical mistakes in his handling of the Depression. In 1930, for example, he signed into law (against the advice of many leading economists) the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised many import duties so high that foreign countries could not sell goods in the United States; as a result, those countries could not—or would not—purchase American goods at a time when the need for sales abroad had never been greater. More problems arose in 1932, when Hoover authorized General Douglas MacArthur (MacArthur, Douglas) to evict from Washington, D.C., the Bonus Army, a group of World War I veterans who had camped in the nation's capital to pressure Congress into awarding a promised bonus many years in advance of the scheduled payout date. MacArthur greatly exceeded Hoover's orders in using military force against the unemployed former soldiers. The result was a public relations nightmare for the president. Hoover's silence regarding MacArthur's excesses led the public to think that the president had been responsible for the brutality. The man who had enjoyed a worldwide reputation as a humanitarian now appeared heartless and cruel.

By the 1932 presidential campaign, Hoover was blaming the Depression on events abroad and predicting that election of his Democratic challenger, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Franklin D.), would only intensify the disaster. The electorate obviously thought differently, as Roosevelt captured nearly 23 million votes (and 472 electoral votes) to Hoover's slightly less than 16 million (59 electoral votes). During the months between the election and the inauguration, Hoover attempted unsuccessfully to gain Roosevelt's commitment to sustaining his policies. When he left the White House on March 4, 1933, Hoover was a defeated and embittered man.

Hoover's writings include a small but influential book, American Individualism (1922, reissued 1989), and his Memoirs, 3 vol. (1951–52). Collections of Hoover's documents can be found in William Starr Myers (compiler and ed.), The State Papers and Other Public Writings of Herbert Hoover, 2 vol. (1934, reprinted 1970); and Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Herbert Hoover, 4 vol. (1974–77), covering 1929–33.Biographies include Eugene Lyons, Herbert Hoover (1964), which presents an uncritical portrait of Hoover; Joan Hoff Wilson, Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (1975, reissued 1992); David Burner, Herbert Hoover: A Public Life (1979), dealing with Hoover's career as mining engineer and commerce secretary in addition to his presidency; Gary Dean Best, Herbert Hoover: The Postpresidential Years, 1933–1964, 2 vol. (1983), providing a sympathetic examination of Hoover's political life following his presidency; George H. Nash, The Life of Herbert Hoover (1983– ), a detailed multivolume treatment; and Richard Norton Smith, An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover (1984).Gary Dean Best, The Politics of American Individualism: Herbert Hoover in Transition, 1918–1921 (1975); and Lawrence E. Gelfand (ed.), Herbert Hoover: The Great War and Its Aftermath, 1914–23 (1979), assess Hoover's prepresidential years. His economic policy is discussed in Ellis W. Hawley (ed.), Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce: Studies in New Era Thought and Practice (1981); and William J. Barber, From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921–1933 (1985). Edgar Eugene Robinson and Vaughn Davis Bornet, Herbert Hoover, President of the United States (1975); and Martin L. Fausold, The Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover (1985), examine his administration. Accounts of the Great Depression are presented in Jordan A. Schwarz, The Interregnum of Despair: Hoover, Congress, and the Depression (1970); Gene Smith, The Shattered Dream: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression (1970, reissued 1984); and Louis W. Liebovich, Bylines in Despair: Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression, and the U.S. News Media (1994), which focuses on Hoover's relationship with the press during this period. Other aspects of Hoover's career are treated in Donald J. Lisio, Hoover, Blacks & Lily-Whites: A Study of Southern Strategies (1985), dealing with race relations; David E. Hamilton, From New Day to New Deal: American Farm Policy from Hoover to Roosevelt, 1928–1933 (1991), on Hoover's agricultural policy; and James D. Calder, The Origins and Development of Federal Crime Control Policy: Herbert Hoover's Initiatives (1993), on his reforms to the criminal justice system.Useful bibliographies include Kathleen Tracey (compiler), Herbert Hoover—A Bibliography: His Writings and Addresses (1977); Richard D. Burns (compiler), Herbert Hoover: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency (1991); and Patrick G. O'Brien (compiler), Herbert Hoover (1993).Essays dealing with the life and interests of the president's wife are presented in Dale C. Mayer (ed.), Lou Henry Hoover: Essays on a Busy Life (1994).