Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

In this balanced evaluation of the Hoover Administration and its efforts to deal with the domestic problems of the Great Depression, Harris Gaylord Warren cuts through the myths that surround a crucial and insufficiently understood period of American political history. He outlines the conditions that produced the depression, and the political and economic philosophy that underlay Hoover’s actions. Although sharply critical of Hoover’s lack of vision, he demonstrates that in many ways Hoover has been unfairly judged. For, Mr. Warren notes, Hoover, “the Great Humanitarian, the Great Engineer, the Great Secretary,” was “the embodiment of an idea, a legendary ideal, a portrait of intentions and not a picture of realities.”