Hoover and FDR's Folly — Study Guide

HIST 102: U.S. History Since 1877 | Chapter 25, Lecture 1

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How to Use This Study Guide

📍 Find the deck: The lecture deck is posted in your Canvas module. Open it, then click the popup terms (dotted underlines) and press 'S' for speaker notes.
📝 Fill in your own words: Use the blank space in each row to define each term after you've reviewed the deck. Write full definitions in your own words.
⚠️ Can I use this on the exam? Yes — but only if it's handwritten. No printouts, no copy-paste from Google or AI.

Part I: Topic Overview

Herbert Hoover entered the White House in 1929 as the most celebrated American alive — an internationally renowned humanitarian and the most activist Commerce Secretary in the nation's history. Yet within three years he had become the Depression personified, his name attached to shantytowns, empty pockets, and a do-nothing myth that his opponents deliberately constructed to justify far more radical intervention. This lecture dismantles that myth while building a more damning case: that both Hoover and FDR intervened actively, that their interventions were often internally contradictory and politically captured, and that neither man ended the Depression.

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal enlarged Hoover's programs while adding its own structural failures — the NRA's price-fixing cartel, the AAA's deliberate crop destruction, punitive taxes that discouraged investment, and relief money channeled to political allies rather than the neediest Americans. Unemployment still stood above 14% in 1940, after a full decade of federal intervention. What finally ended the Depression was wartime mobilization spending at roughly 40% of GDP — a scale that peacetime democratic politics had refused to permit. Walter Lippmann wrote in 1935 that "the Roosevelt measures are a continuous evolution of the Hoover measures." The unemployment data confirm his verdict.

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each statement using the lecture deck. Terms in bold appear in Part II.

After World War I, Hoover directed the , which delivered more than 4 million tons of relief supplies to 23 war-torn countries.
Hoover's governing philosophy rested on two principles: (cooperation without coercion) and (business, government, and civic bodies working together).
Hoover's most direct relief measure, the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, authorized billion to state and local governments for job-creating public works.
The Tariff of 1930 caused trading partners to retaliate, collapsing American exports by 61% by 1932.
By 1932 the name "Hoover" was applied to shantytowns called , while empty pockets turned inside out were called "Hoover flags."
The of March 1933 succeeded by breaking the self-fulfilling logic of bank runs — deposits flooded back in overnight.
The NRA suspended law, allowing industries to set minimum prices; it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935 in Schechter Poultry v. United States.
The AAA paid farmers to destroy crops — million acres of cotton plowed under and 6 million pigs slaughtered — while breadlines stretched around city blocks.
FDR's tax (1936) penalized companies for retaining earnings needed for investment and expansion, discouraging the hiring recovery required.
Unemployment fell from 14.6% in 1940 to below 2% by 1943 — not because of New Deal programs, but because wartime mobilization spent approximately % of GDP.

Part II: Essential Terms & Concepts

Term & Topic	Your Definition (after reviewing the deck & popups)
American Relief Administration (Hoover's Social Thought)	After — deck + popups: When it was created, what it did, how much it delivered, and what it reveals about Hoover's pre-presidential record
Voluntarism & Associationalism (Hoover's Governing Philosophy)	After — deck + popups: What each principle means, why they were mainstream ideas in the 1910s–20s, and why they failed during the Depression
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) (Hoover's New Deal)	After — deck + popups: What it was, how much it provided, why Hoover considered it consistent with his principles, and what FDR did with it
Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930) (How Hoover Made It Worse)	After — deck + popups: What it did to import rates, how trading partners responded, and what it did to American exports by 1932
Hoovervilles / Bonus Army (Hoover Becomes the Depression)	After — deck + popups: What Hoovervilles were, who the Bonus Army was, what happened to them, and how FDR weaponized the resulting myth
Bank Holiday / Emergency Banking Act (FDR's Clearest Success: The Bank Holiday)	After — deck + popups: What FDR declared, what the Emergency Banking Act did, and why deposits flooded back in — the mechanism that made it work
National Recovery Administration (NRA) (The National Recovery Administration)	After — deck + popups: What law it suspended, what industry codes did to prices and output, which workers it harmed most, and how it was struck down
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) (The Agricultural Adjustment Administration)	After — deck + popups: The stated logic, what it destroyed, who captured the subsidies, who was displaced, and how it was struck down
Undistributed-Profits Tax (1936) (FDR Tripled the Tax Burden)	After — deck + popups: What it taxed, the stated intention, and why it was economically self-defeating for a recovery that needed private investment
Roosevelt Recession (1937–1938) (The Roosevelt Recession, 1937–1938)	After — deck + popups: The three simultaneous causes, the result in industrial production, and what it reveals about New Deal economic logic
Lippmann's Verdict (1935) (Walter Lippmann, 1935)	After — deck + popups: What Lippmann said, why his ideological position makes this observation significant, and what it implies about the New Deal's originality
The New Deal's Deepest Legacy (The New Deal's Deepest Legacy)	After — deck + popups: What the federal government's role was before 1933, what consensus emerged after, and why the lecture calls this more durable than any specific program
Liquidationism (Mellon's Advice) (Hoover's Response)	After — deck + popups: What Mellon advised, why both Hoover and FDR refused, and why the lecture treats this refusal as historically significant

Part III: Study Checklist

I can describe Hoover's record before the presidency — the ARA, Commerce Department, and Food Administration — and explain why it contradicts the "do-nothing" myth. (Hoover's Social Thought)
I can explain the difference between voluntarism and associationalism, why these were mainstream ideas in the 1920s, and why they were inadequate for a structural catastrophe. (Hoover's Governing Philosophy)
I can identify the three programs of Hoover's New Deal (Agricultural Marketing Act, RFC, Emergency Relief and Construction Act) and match each to its dollar scale. (Hoover's New Deal)
I can explain how Smoot-Hawley and the Revenue Act of 1932 actively deepened the Depression — and why they contradict any claim that Hoover simply did nothing. (How Hoover Made It Worse)
I can explain why Walter Lippmann's 1935 observation — that the Roosevelt measures were a continuous evolution of the Hoover measures — is historically significant. (Walter Lippmann, 1935)
I can trace the NRA's internal contradiction: how suspending antitrust law and fixing minimum prices raised costs for consumers exactly when purchasing power needed to expand, and which workers paid the highest price. (The National Recovery Administration / What the NRA Actually Did)
I can explain the AAA's logic and its consequences — who received the subsidies, who was displaced, and why the lecture calls it a transfer of wealth from the rural poor to the rural landed class by design. (The Agricultural Adjustment Administration / What the AAA Actually Produced)
I can identify the three simultaneous causes of the Roosevelt Recession of 1937–38 and explain what they reveal about the internal contradictions of New Deal economic policy. (The Roosevelt Recession, 1937–1938)
I can state what actually ended the Great Depression, at what scale of spending, and explain why that scale was impossible in peacetime — and why neither Hoover nor FDR can claim credit for it. (What Actually Ended the Depression)
I can state the lecture's central verdict on both presidents — what each did, what each failed to do, and what the New Deal's most durable product actually was. (The Verdict)