Photographs of Herbert Hoover, 1893-1954

Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). He was a professional mining engineer and achieved American and international prominence in humanitarian relief efforts in war-torn Belgium while serving as head of the U.S. Food Administration during World War I. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization." In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination despite having no elected-office experience. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an increase in the top tax bracket from 25% to 63% and increases in corporate taxes. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.