A First-Person Biography of Herbert Hoover
Who am I?
I am Herbert Hoover. I was the 31st president of the United States and my term was notably marked by the stock market crash and the beginnings of the Great Depression. I gained a reputation as a humanitarian in World War I by leading hunger-relief efforts in Europe as head of the American Relief Administration. In my early years, I was just an ordinary boy. As the second of three children in a family of Quakers, who valued honesty, industriousness, and simplicity, I strived to honor those principles over the course of my life. I attended several Quaker schools and became part of the first class at Stanford University. I graduated in four years with a degree in geology. I was on track for becoming a mining engineer.
(It’s me! Herbert Hoover!)
What did I do?
A lifelong humanitarian, as an adult, I was in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Four years later, I helped Americans stranded in Europe when World War I began, and for three years after, I headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, helping to procure food for 9 million Belgians in the aftermath of the massive encroachment of German troops. My effectiveness prompted President Woodrow Wilson to appoint me head of the Food Administration, which diverted American agricultural products overseas to American troops. President Warren G. Harding then picked me to be his secretary of commerce, as did President Calvin Coolidge after him. When President Coolidge decided not to run for another term, I was nominated as the Republican candidate. I ran against New York governor Alfred E. Smith and won in a landslide. During my campaign, I said, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land,” but a year later the stock market crash struck, and the worst economic downturn in American history was upon my administration. My plan to attack the Great Depression had as its backbone tax cuts and public works
I am Herbert Hoover. I was the 31st president of the United States and my term was notably marked by the stock market crash and the beginnings of the Great Depression. I gained a reputation as a humanitarian in World War I by leading hunger-relief efforts in Europe as head of the American Relief Administration. In my early years, I was just an ordinary boy. As the second of three children in a family of Quakers, who valued honesty, industriousness, and simplicity, I strived to honor those principles over the course of my life. I attended several Quaker schools and became part of the first class at Stanford University. I graduated in four years with a degree in geology. I was on track for becoming a mining engineer.
(It’s me! Herbert Hoover!)
What did I do?
A lifelong humanitarian, as an adult, I was in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Four years later, I helped Americans stranded in Europe when World War I began, and for three years after, I headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, helping to procure food for 9 million Belgians in the aftermath of the massive encroachment of German troops. My effectiveness prompted President Woodrow Wilson to appoint me head of the Food Administration, which diverted American agricultural products overseas to American troops. President Warren G. Harding then picked me to be his secretary of commerce, as did President Calvin Coolidge after him. When President Coolidge decided not to run for another term, I was nominated as the Republican candidate. I ran against New York governor Alfred E. Smith and won in a landslide. During my campaign, I said, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land,” but a year later the stock market crash struck, and the worst economic downturn in American history was upon my administration. My plan to attack the Great Depression had as its backbone tax cuts and public works