Herbert Clark Hoover's Impact on the United States

Herbert Clark Hoover was inaugurated President in March of 1929. When he became President, the country was enjoying economic prosperity. Half a year later everything would change.

Hoover was born on August 10, 1974 in West Branch, Iowa. His parents were rural Quakers. His father was a blacksmith and his mother a school teacher. He studied geology and mining at Stanford University in that institutions’ first freshman class. He met a female student, Lou Henry, in his geology class, whom he later married. After college Mr. and Mrs. Hoover managed and organized mining properties in China, Africa, Europe, and Western Australia. By the time Hoover was 40 years old, he was a millionaire.

In 1914, World War I breaks out. To old to fight, Hoover organizes and assists in the return of thousands of Americans stranded in Europe. That completed, he turns his attention to Belgium. Belgium had been hit hard by the War. People were starving, they also lacked clothing and medical supplies. He set up Hoover’s Commission for the Relief of Belgium. For the next five years his relief organization operated it’s own fleet of approximately two hundred ships and transported more then five million metric tons of food to war weary Belgium. The over one billion dollars he spent came from government loans and private donations.

In 1917, the United States entered the war. Hoover was put in charge of the food administration. His job was to curb wartime profiteering in food supplies. After the war he was put in charge of the American Relief Administration - charged with distributing medical supplies, food, and clothing to refugees in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union. All his efforts were considered successful. John Maynard Keynes called Hoover...

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...r public works. Through the Reconstruction Finance Cooperation government loans were supplied for some business firms. The economy continued to stagnate. Local and private relief funds were exhausted. Hoover, now in a quandary, authorized direct federal spending for welfare purposes. It was to late for Hoover politically. His opponents had fashioned an image of him as a President unwilling to help people in distress. This was a stereotype Hoover did not enjoy. He had been successful in almost anything he had attempted. Now he knew failure!

Works Cited

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty Volume 2. New York: Norton, 2009. History Book.

Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia Volume 13. United States: Edward Haas, 2000. Encyclopedia.

Hollitz, John, Steven M. Gillon, and Cathy D. Matson. History 102 Volume 2. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. History Book.