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31st President · Republican
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover
Served: March 4, 1929 — March 4, 1933
- Lived
- August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964
- Home State
- California
- Party
- Republican
- Vice President
- Charles Curtis
Herbert Hoover was a brilliant mining engineer and humanitarian whose presidency was overwhelmed by the Great Depression, which began seven months after his inauguration. He created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and authorized the Hoover Dam, but his signing of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act triggered global retaliation and deepened the economic collapse. His order to disperse the Bonus Army of unemployed veterans, carried out harshly by General MacArthur, further damaged his reputation. Mining engineer on four continents, director of American relief efforts feeding tens of millions in Europe after World War I, Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge.
Stanford University (charter class), 1895.
Signed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, creating the RFC to lend to banks and railroads. Signed the Norris–LaGuardia Act limiting court injunctions against labor. Authorized construction of the Hoover Dam. Signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act (1930), the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act (1932), and the Norris–LaGuardia Act (1932).
Signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which triggered global retaliation and deepened the Depression. Ordered General MacArthur to disperse the Bonus Army of unemployed WWI veterans camped in Washington — MacArthur exceeded his orders and burned the camp.
Hoover was a brilliant administrator crushed by an economic collapse he did not understand. He spent his long post-presidency trying to rehabilitate his reputation, with partial success.