The 1920s, Depression, and Hoover
“We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever
before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. We have
not yet reached the goal, but given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last
eight years, we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will
be banished from the nation.”
Herbert Hoover, Speech at the Republican National Convention, June 12, 1928.
“We are maintaining organized cooperation with industry systematically to
distribute the available work so as to give income to as many families as possible. . . .
We are maintaining and will maintain systematic voluntary organization in the
community in aid of employment and care for distress. There are a score of other
directions in which cooperation is organized and stimulation given. We propose to go
forward with these major activities and policies. We will not be diverted from them.”
Herbert Hoover, Speech to Indiana Editorial Association, June 15, 1931.
Key Questions
1. What were the most important Republican domestic policies during the 1920s?
2. Who in American society benefited most and least from these policies?
3. Did Republican governance contribute to the stock market crash and onset of the
Depression?
4. How did advertising help shape the new consumer society? Were there other
important contributing factors?
5. Why were businessmen, such as Henry Ford and Samuel Insull, held in such high
regard during the 1920s?
6. What were the causes of the Great Depression?
7. What were the principal features of Herbert Hoover’s response?
8. Why were Hoover’s policies not more successful?
Useful Sources
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009
(revised ed.). Chapters 20 and 21 for the 1920s, Depression, and New Deal.
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War,
1929-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Parrish, Michael E. Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1929-1941.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1992. A comprehensive, straightforward account of the 1920s.