Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover served as president from 1929–1933. He was a Republican. He was born in Iowa but made his American political home in California. His nickname, from his pre-politics career, was the Great Engineer — he was a world-famous mining engineer before he ever ran for office. His childhood included being an orphan: both of his parents died when he was young, and relatives raised him. He was the first president born west of the Mississippi River.

Before the White House he became famous for organizing food relief in Europe after World War I. He fed millions in Belgium and later in war-torn Europe. That humanitarian record is why many people trusted him. About eight months after he took office, the stock market crashed. He was inaugurated in March 1929. The crash came in October. The long slump that defined his term is called the Great Depression. Banks failed, jobs vanished, and it became a worldwide crash. Unemployment soared toward about 25 percent — roughly one worker in four had no job.

Shantytowns of homeless Americans were nicknamed Hoovervilles. The giant dam tied to his era of water engineering is Hoover Dam, a Colorado River project approved in his time and later named for him. He believed the crash should be met mainly by voluntary cooperation and a limited federal role. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated him in 1932. A fair way to remember Hoover is as a humanitarian hit by a global crash.