Which nickname did Herbert Hoover acquire prior to his presidency?

Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was a member of the Republican Party, nominated by his party when he was the United States Secretary of Commerce.

His attractiveness as a presidential candidate resulted from his leadership on the Commission for Relief in Belgium, an international care relief organization that provided food to occupied Belgium during WWI.

When the U.S. entered the war, he was appointed to lead the Food Administration and became known as the country’s “food czar’. Subsequently, Hoover led the American Relief Administration, which provide food to the inhabitants of Central Europe and Eastern Europe. His war-time service made him a favorite of many progressives.

The stock market crashed shortly after Hoover took office, and the Great Depression became the central issue of his presidency. While he pursued a variety of policies in an attempt to lift the economy out of the depression, he opposed directly involving the federal government in relief efforts.

Hoover was extremely unpopular when he left office after the 1932 election, but his historical reputation credited him for his genuine belief in voluntarism and cooperation. However, these efforts failed to recognize the severity of the Great Depression.