Herbert Hoover biography

Synopsis

Profile

(born August 10, 1874, West Branch, Iowa, U.S.—died October 20, 1964, New York, New York) 31st president of the United States (1929–33). Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian—earned during and after World War I as he rescued millions of Europeans from starvation—faded from public consciousness when his administration proved unable to alleviate widespread joblessness, homelessness, and hunger in his own country during the early years of the Great Depression. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, presidency of the United States of America.)

Hoover was the son of Jesse and Hulda Hoover. His father was a hardworking blacksmith and farm-implement dealer and his mother an extremely pious woman who eventually adopted Quakerism. Amid the streams, woodlands, and rolling hills around West Branch, Iowa, the young Hoover enjoyed an almost idyllic childhood—until age six, when his father died from heart disease; his mother died of pneumonia three years later. The orphaned Herbert then left Iowa for Oregon, where he grew up in the home of John and Laura Minthorn, his maternal uncle and aunt. His parents' character and religiosity and the trauma of his early childhood left an indelible mark on the young Herbert, instilling in him the self-reliance, industriousness, and moral concern for the needy, abandoned, and downtrodden that would characterize him for the rest of his life (his favourite book was David Copperfield). In classic Quaker fashion, his speech, dress, and demeanour were unadorned. Hoover was a member of the first class at Stanford University (1895). He graduated with a degree in geology and became a mining engineer, working on a wide variety of projects on four continents and displaying exceptional business acumen. Within two decades of leaving Stanford, he had amassed a personal net worth of about $4 million.

Caught in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1900), Hoover displayed his gift for humanitarian rescue by organizing relief for trapped foreigners. He drew on his China experience in 1914, when he helped Americans stranded in Europe at the outbreak of World War I. For the next three years, he headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, overseeing what he called “the greatest charity the world has ever seen” and exhibiting impressive executive ability in helping to procure food for some nine million people whose country had been overrun by the German army. So skilled was Hoover's performance that President Woodrow Wilson appointed him U.S. food administrator for the duration of the war. Relying primarily on voluntary cooperation