In an effort to paint Herbert Hoover solely responsible for what became known as the Great Depression, the Democratic party immediately went to work to brand the images of devastating poverty as “Hooverian.” The shanty towns became Hoovervilles, newspapers became Hoover Blankets, and so forth.

And he WAS president when the Depression hit, and so he rightfully must take the fall for the policies that failed to turn it around, but it is worth noting that Herbert Hoover had been predicting an economic crash for a decade before and tried to make precautions against it as Secretary of Commerce. But our country has a weird habit of thinking that once the economy is going great, it will go on being great forever, and his policy suggestions largely went ignored by those who had the power to ignore them.

And the Roaring Twenties went on a-roarin’.