Asses the view that Hoovers policies and attitudes in the years 1929-33 merely prolonged the depression.

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Asses the view that Hoover’s policies and attitudes in the years 1929-33 merely prolonged the depression.

President Herbert Hoover came in to power in America in 1928. He was a man with a strong belief and he believes in individualism and believed passionately in the values of hard work and enterprise. However, he came in power at a time where America was in an economic crisis, where unemployment was shooting up as well as inflation, America had entered a new era where inequality was increasing more than ever for example New York had one million unemployed whereas Ohio has 50% of the population unemployed, thus it was vital for Hoover’s policies to be adequate in order to restore prosperity. Source 7 clearly argues that Hoover’s attitudes and policies were inadequate and “failed again and again”. Similarly, source 8 believes that his faith in his own policies has only prolonged the depression even more, thus both sources have a clear consensus between them. On the other hand source 9 argues that a lot was actually done in order to get Americans back on their feet, thus Hoover’s attitudes and policies were good for America. However, it is clear that Hoover simply did not do enough in order to deal with this economic crisis as he was seen to be as a very “stubborn” person as source 7 argues and he simple could not read between the lines.

Source 7 describes Hoover as a very stubborn person who “Remained convinced that he was right” Hoovers attitudes towards agriculture did not help American farmers at all. The agricultural marketing act was established in 1929 which artificially purchased farmers surpluses at prices above the market price. Hoover gave the Federal Farm Board $500M, yet Hoover still not think through exactly what he was doing. The agricultural market was in a significant decline in America during the 1930s and he only encouraged farmers to produce more as the Federal Reserve board was purchasing their surpluses. Furthermore, he was accused of throwing away tax payers money which was extremely regressive. Similarly, source 8 believes that Hoover undertook some “harmful policies” where he also “resisted congressional attempts to provide more substantial farm relief” this can be seen through the fact that instead of putting money into farmer’s pockets he actually took it away. Farming was seen as the backbone of the American economy and Hoovers Agricultural Marketing Act  seemed like something that was rushed and never thought through which emphasises how Hoover simply lacked knowledge in many areas of the economy. Furthermore, he never thought about agricultural on an international level and the consequences his actions would have, thus his attitudes towards individualism was clearly not applicable to American society at that time as American clearly needed a Keynesian approach towards the economy where money would be significantly pumped in to the circulation of the economy.

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Source 8 also believes that the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was significantly damaging towards Americans “which he signed despite the advice of most economists”. This emphasises his attitudes towards his policies, he in his own “fantasy world” as source 7 also describes as he simple did not have any fixed approach towards fixing the damaged economy. Hoover did not realise exactly what was needed for the American economy as if he did, he would have realised that putting a 40% duty on agricultural products would not have stimulated the economy. This fantasy world consisted of just his own approach, which was not ...

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