Herbert Hoover was a politician and a humanitarian whose legacy has been largely defined by the Great Depression. When he was elected president in a landslide victory in 1928, Hoover had never before held public office. Yet his remarkable humanitarian work and career as a mining engineer, businessman and U.S. Secretary of Commerce carried him to office. When the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, Hoover’s agenda was derailed by the worsening economic crisis. Despite various efforts to pull the nation out of depression, Hoover’s unsuccessful attempts led to his sound defeat by Franklin Roosevelt just four years after his landslide victory. HERBERT HOOVER: LANDSLIDE looks at the life of the controversial figure through interviews with notable historians and Hoover scholars.
Watch Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 7pm.
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