Herbert Hoover - President of the Great Depression is the biography of Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first President of the United States (1929-1933), a mining engineer and humanitarian administrator. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under President's Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, Hoover promoted economic modernization. Hoover easily won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1928. The nation was prosperous and optimistic, leading to a Hoover landslide over Democrat Al Smith, a Catholic whose religion was distrusted by many. Hoover deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement (a major component of the Progressive Era), arguing that there are technical solutions to all social and economic problems. That position was challenged by the Great Depression, which began in 1929, the first year of his presidency. He tried to combat the Depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward spiral into deep economic depression. Herbert Hoover - President of the Great Depression is highly recommended for those interested in reading more about President Herbert Hoover and the history of the great depression.
