Every President is a "victim of circumstance", it all depends on how they (and congress) deal with those circumstances. Hoover dealt with the economic situation at the time by more than doubling taxes on the rich and The Great Depression was the result.

Hmmm. Dealing with an economic situation by raising taxes on the rich. That sounds familiar... 

Hoover didn't cause The Great Depression like some say, but he certainly didn't help out.

Prosperity is just around the corner. Right.  But take heart, there's probably a Hooverville near you!  His treatment of the Bonus Army, veterans of The Great War, was also less than stellar.

Although he understood how to get things done, he, unfortunately, never fully understood how to run a country or its government. He was, however, a good humanitarian.

In this case, the job was bigger than the man. He was and is underrated as a progressive and a true humanitarian. A good man, a weak leader who has been unfairly maligned for "causing" the Great Depression. However, his signing of the Smoot Hawley Tarrif Act did worsen the effects of the Depression, and sitting on his can in the White House while the Bonus Marchers (American heroes/ war veterans) were beaten and arrested was inexcusable.

I have a saying that should become this country's mantra. Never let an engineer be president! Engineers have no feelings.

Look at Jimmy Carter!

Herbert Hoover was a good man who was in over his head and stubbornly refused to think "outside the box" as the country collapsed around him; he was deservedly swept out of office. His real legacy was made during World War I as the head of food relief.

Very bright man, and much hated because of the 'crash' in 1929 and the depression. Truth is, Hoover was a victim of his time- which believed that the American free enterprise system would cure all ills- that was proven not to be the case. Hoover was not a bad President- just unable to realize that times had changed.

Published more than 16 books, including one called "Fishing for Fun - And to Wash Your Soul."

A bright man who was overmatched during the Depression.Deer in the headlights look during these times did not exactly inspire confidence.Tried a lot of stuff to compensate for this,none of what he did helped.And on top of that,this banana was succeeded by one of the true nitwits in FDR the loser!

Gets a solid "E" for effort. As the national economy started acting like a cheap wind up toy with a broken spring, Hoover at least made several attempts to turn things around. Unfortunately, none of them worked.

Hoover's economic policies led us to the Depression. Oddly, FDR continued to use those same economic policies for the first six years of his presidency which only deepened the Depression. Like TR, Taft and Wilson, Hoover expanded the size and power of the Federal government beyond the intentions of the Founders.

Like Warren Harding he was one of the only republican Presedents we've had who was a good man, even though he had some bad polocies it would've taken forever to fix them anyway.

Gotta get him ahead of Bush

Though extremely intelligent and resourceful, it is unfortunate that Herbert Clarke Hoover was unable to translate his personal attributes to the Presidency. It lends then to the fact that great men sometimes do not make great leaders. Hoover, because of his inability to relate to the average American, could not govern in an effective way so as to inspire confidence from them. He did his best to try to curb the effects of the Great Depression, but it was beyond his control. Hoover might have been a great President in a different era, but it was his unfortunate luck to be President during this time in history.

Hitler became fuhrer in 1934, and even in late 1933 when he became Chancellor, Hoover was already out of the presidency.

He promised every US citizen a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. My grandmother said that she and her family nearly starved to death. However, he's a whole lot better than this doofus we have for a preseident in '04.

If you go based on constitutionality, he is #1 alongside Buchanan. Unlike Buchanan, he actually ended up trying some things. Though these all failed, he at least tried. He was not a good president, nor was he a bad president. History has come kind on him, as it should have. He also shortened the Lame Duck period for outgoing presidents and senators. Let's hope Bush does not change that so he stays in office another 8 months or something...

Much better than W

Better than W.

Truly awful, one of the worst. Represented traditional consevative economic ideals.

Depression wasnt his fault, but also did nothing to help stop it.

The WORST president of all time.

There really wasn't anything he could have done about the depression.. Roosevelt didn't fix it either...

Bush makes Hoover seem like a freakin' genius.

Made the depression worse.

Much better then dubya.

Totally clueless in dealing with the dire economic conditions of his term office. Was in blunt denial of the peril, which didn't help things much. Later, he redeemed himself to a certain extent by humanitarian efforts, but he has to rate among the worst half dozen American Presidents. What's amazing about the relative success of this country is that it was achieved while so many dimbulbs have supposedly been in charge. Honestly, we've had over 40 Presidents and only about a quarter of them were any good.

Hoover was a great humanterian prior to becoming President. The Worldwide depression that struck was not created with him. He actually did make a strong effort to turn the tide. It failed . As did FDR's programs failed to stem the depression only the war economy in WW2 ended the Depression. A great man caught at the wrong time in History.

One of the greatest presidents ever, and a #2 for the best name (Millard Fillmore wins) but he shall go down in history with this ONE line from the classic American movie Home Alone 2: Plaza Guy: You know, Herbert Hoover stayed on this floor! Kevin: You mean the vacuum cleaner guy? Plaza Guy: No, the president!!! What a gag, you go Herbie!!!

POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES: Herbert Hoover was an honest, well-intentioned man who was a firm believer in volunteerism and a public-private partnership between the people and the government. He was a firm believer in rights ofr Native Americans and planned on initiating many more Social Programs such as federal aid to education than his predacessor did. NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES: Herbert Hoover's biggest problem wasn't that he did not stop the Depression, but in turn, he refused to acknowledge that any such Depression existed. At a time when over 10 Million were unemployed and dozens of people were homeless and poverty-stricken in 1930, he had the audacity to make the statement that "no one in this country is actually starving". He was naiive enough to believe that the local governments would be able to turn the economy around with next to no federal governmental aid. Only when time for re-election came around did he create the Reconstruction Finance Board which granted federally funded loans to states to deal with the economic Depression. He also asked Congress for numerous funds for Social programs to stimulate the growing tide of unemployment, but by the time he came to his senses, it was too little too late. FINAL ANALYSIS: Had Herbert Hoover presided over the country at a different time, a time when prosperity was rampid, then he may have faired much better as President. However, his failure to acknowledge that a Depression was looming in the American economy eventually led to not only the downfall of the American economy but his own downfall.

Hoover's main achievement was to create by far the worst economic record of any political leader in the history of western capitalism. Most people think Hoover inherited a worldwide Great Depression but didn't do enough to fight it, due to the lack of economic techniques & knowledge at the time. Only the first claim is true. The Fed created the conditions for a stock market bust and recession/banking panic by massively inflating the money supply during the 1920s. Hoover inherited this, but instead of following previous policy and letting the market correct itself, he believed it would be better for the government to step in and "help" the economy recover. The idea that he was a "free market republican" is absolute nonsense - from WWI onwards there is a clear record of him advocating large government intervention (in supposed "partnership" with big business) to fight recessions. So he was always a big government interventionist (like Nixon). In addition, he enacted HUGE interventions from 1930-32, which were almost as extensive as Roosevelt's. These actions were the direct cause of the recession turning into a depression. Far from "not doing enough", it was his attempts to "do something" that were the problem. And as for economic theory not knowing how to respond, this is clearly wrong as well. Ludwig Von Mises had explained many years before that central bank expansion of the money supply would cause booms and subsequent busts, and he also made it unmistakeably clear that heavy government intervention would prove counterproductive. The latter fact was also a widely held belief amongst prior presidents (especially in the 19th century), and many businessmen, which is why previous recessions saw the government "do nothing" and subsequently watch the recession end within a year (e.g. the panics of 1907, 1920 etc). But no, Hoover thought he knew better and had to introduce policies which experience and economic theory said would be disastrous. Then, when the consequences of his folly became clear, instead of rectifying the error he refused to admit it and instead ordered ever MORE intervention. This finally killed off the economy and led to the worst recession in the 300 year history of western capitalism. For a good explanation of Hoover's interventionist mindset, the specific policies he implemented, and the results, read Murray Rothbard's "America's Great Depression". Finally, the idea that the depression was a mysterious worldwide force beyond control was nonsense - countries such as Great Britain (whose central bank also printed lots of money, causing a similar boom) did not suffer anywhere near as badly, and countries like Sweden which followed a relatively "hands off" approach actually suffered only a normal recession, exacerbated mildly by the subsequent trade wars and competitive devaluations of the 30s. No, it was only America that suffered such a catastrophic economic collapse, and this was unsurprisingly due to specifically American policies enacted by its government. Needless to say, Hoover was a complete disaster as president.

Vastly underrated. A Republican through and through, he wholeheartedly believed the government had no place in "fixing" the economy. Thrashed by the Great Depression and FDR, Hoover did go on to help spearhead efforts to re-build post-war Europe. A good man with horrible timing went on to make one of the finest ex-presidents ever.

Before the cardboard box houses the legions homeless created by Reagan commonly called "Reagan Ranches," there were "Hoovervilles." When will people ever learn that these republican fascists are only out for one monied group of WASPs. Today it's the gluttonous Bushes salivating over expanding their oil empire for self gain and at extreme risk to the greatest nation on earth. Hoover should have beent tried for treason.

No intelligent and open-minded person could honestly believe Hoover was capable to starting a world-wide depression only a few months after taking office. Even if he were terrible enough to want to, no one man could possibly pull off something like that.

Poor Hoover.

One heck of a world class explorer as a younger man, and one who had a better grasp of the world than generally given credit for. He inherited sprouting seeds of depression. Economic theory, imperfect now, was not equipped to deal with problems in 1929. FDR, for all of his New Deal activism, saw depression end only because of WWII spending.

Hoover was not the cause of the depression, there were forces greater than him at play. He advocated limited government intervention, but never to the extent that his successor, FDR did. Otherwise, he did little, which is what the government should have done in the first place.

One of the greatest racists to ever occupy the White House.

The funny thing is Hoover's downfall was dabbling in "New Deal" style economic interventionism. FDR was just better in marketing than Hoover.

His vacuum cleaner company is still going strong today.