Causes Of Herbert Hoover To Blame For The Great Depression

On October 24th, 1929 one of the most devastating events in American history occurred. Nearly half of America’s banks had failed and over 13 million people were unemployed. As a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, America spiraled downward into the Great Depression. Many people believed that Herbert Hoover was to blame for the Depression, because Hoover believed that the government should not do anything to the economy because the economy would eventually fix itself.

As a child, Hoover was shy, sensitive, and introverted in response to the loss of his parents, and him and his siblings lived with their aunt and uncle. Meanwhile, Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy in Newberg, Oregon and he had shortcoming grades in all subjects except

Hoover underestimated the severity of the Great Depression. Although, he believed it would get better it progressively got worse. Approximately 13 million Americans lost their jobs, and thousands of businesses had failed, and the number of farm foreclosures increased. Provided that the plan worked, which entailed keeping money in people’s pockets and to keep people working, he contacted business leaders and urged them to not lay off workers and not to cut wages. The plan failed and as a result, Hoover watched as Americans drowned into poverty. He signed The Smoot-Hawley Act into a law, which raised taxes on imports; but it was a huge mistake because it induced foreign nations to turn the other cheek on American-made goods when the country desperately needed sales.Furthermore, in order to deal with the Depression, Hoover encouraged volunteerism. Volunteerism was a collaboration between private sectors and public sectors of the economy, meaning that, Americans should volunteer to help one another. Unfortunately, it was not good enough for many people. The people struggled to survive and needed immediate help in big ways. Communities known as shantytowns were named “Hoovervilles”and which were a settlement of improvised housing. The people named shantytowns after the president as a way to appoint blame and express anger.

In fact, Hoover is ranked 9th place in the worst presidents list, according to U.S. News. Perhaps of his shy and introverted personality, he decided not fix the Great Depression because he did not want to make the situation worse. Although, doing something is better than doing nothing. Also, he sent the Army to clear America’s WWI veterans from their campsite in Washington D.C. The infantry and cavalry paired with six tanks were ordered to clear out the veterans and their families, Hoover killed his own people. On the other hand, fortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into office on January 30th, 1882. Instead of doing nothing, FDR fought the Depression with his New Deal; which was a group of U.S.government programs whose purpose was to help the country recover from economic problems. The New Deal was a success and brought relief to many Americans. With this in mind, President Herbert Hoover’s presidency was a