By Thomas F. Schwartz A swarm of locusts by Emil Schmidt via Wikimedia Commons Most history buffs know that Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874. What is less well-known is that the summer of 1874 witnessed a major devastation of crops in Canada and the Unites States by locust swarms including areas of Western Iowa. … Continue reading Locust, Drought, and Hoover
Part 2 -- The Great Humanitarian Stumbles [For Part 1, see https://hoover.blogs.archives.gov/2020/09/16/herbert-hoover-and-the-1930-drought/ ] by Spencer Howard At first, Hoover’s drought relief plan was widely praised; it seemed that he had come up with a perfect combination of Federal leadership and local control. The state and local committees went to work with enthusiasm. But as summer … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and the 1930 Drought, continued
Part 1 -- The Forgotten Crisis by Spencer Howard For many Americans, 1930 was a year of struggle as the national economy sank into what became the Great Depression. In the history books, the stock market and urban unemployment often take center stage, leaving aside the hardships of rural America. Already reeling from a decade … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and the 1930 Drought
