Herbert Clark Hoover (10 August 1874-20 October 1964), the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933), was a successful mining engineer, the peoples icon, and administrator. He showed the Efficiency Movement component of the Progressive Era, arguing there were other solutions to all social and economic problems - a position that was challenged by the Great Depression that began while he was President. Hoover had a distinguished public service career before becoming president at a time of great religious and social turmoil. He had the misfortune to arrive at the presidency at the same time as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the outset of the Great Depression and his legacy to this day carries that stigma. He nevertheless is generally ranked in the middle of the pack of effective presidents.

This is the first definitive study of the presidency of America's least understood and most under-appreciated Chief Executive. Combining government with private resources, Hoover became the first president to pit government action against the economic cycle, setting precedents and spawning ideas employed by his successor and all future presidents.

Herbert Hoover and World Peace summarizes Hoover's career-long efforts to preserve peace in the world and to help America avoid unnecessary wars, from his opposition to our entry into World War I to his proposed — and rejected — Cold War strategy, which would have avoided the Vietnam War. Personal experiences in the Boxer Rebellion in China and helping to feed Belgium during World War I, coupled with his early Quaker nurture, that sensitized him to war-related tragedies. These essays illustrate the varied ways in which Hoover expressed and implemented his commitment to world peace, as humanitarian, advisor, cabinet member, president, citizen, and writer. No other president was so consistent and thoughtful on matters of world peace.

George Nash's research reveals the enduring ties that bound Hoover to Stanford University.

Describes the uphill battle faced by the thirty-first president, who served his single term during the Great Depression, portraying the man as bright, well-meaning, and energetic but ultimately lacking in the tools of leadership. --Publisher.

With the analysis of the best scholars on this era, 29 essays demonstrate how academics then and now have addressed the political, economic, diplomatic, cultural, ethnic, and social history of the presidents of the Republican Era of 1921-1933 - Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. This is the first historiographical treatment of a long-neglected period, ranging from early treatments to the most recent scholarship Features review essays on the era, including the legacy of progressivism in an age of “normalcy”, the history of American foreign relations after World War I, and race relations in the 1920s, as well as coverage of the three presidential elections and a thorough treatment of the causes and consequences of the Great Depression An introduction by the editor provides an overview of the issues, background and historical problems of the time, and the personalities at play

Herbert Hoover, Unemployment, and the Public Sphere examines the fulfillment of Hoover's ideas in the area of unemployment between 1919 and 1933. The economic system Herbert Hoover envisioned, one based on cooperation and individual initiative with limited government, and the language he used to promote this system defined New Era discourse. His American Individualism, printed in 1923, served as the political philosophy of the administrations of the 1920s. In his discourse from 1919-1921, Hoover expanded the criteria- the conceptual definitions of virtue and liberty. The book includes a foreword by Mary O. Furner.