United States presidential election, 1928

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Chapters: United States presidential candidates, 1928, United States vice-presidential candidates, 1928, Herbert Hoover, Charles Curtis, Al Smith, William Z. Foster, Norman Thomas, Cordell Hull, Benjamin Gitlow, United States presidential election in California, 1928, Newton D. Baker, Joseph Taylor Robinson, James Eli Watson, Frederick Steiwer, James H. Maurer, Frank T. Johns, 1928 Republican National Convention, Frank Orren Lowden, Hanford MacNider, James Alexander Reed, 1928 Democratic National Convention, Frank B. Willis, Evans Woollen, William F. Varney. Excerpt: Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 - October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under President Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected without previous electoral experience or high military rank. America was prosperous and optimistic at the time, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith. Hoover, a trained engineer, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement, which held that government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward economic spiral. As a result of these factors, Hoover is ranked poorly among former US Presidents. Tintype of Hoover circa 1877 Hoover birthplace cottage, West Branch, Iowa. Reconstructed Jesse Hoover blacksmith shop, West Branch, Iowa.Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. He was the first president born west of the Mississippi River and remains the only Iowan President. His father, Jessie Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner who was of German (Pfautz, Wehmeyer) and German-Swiss (Huber, Burkh