Calvin B. Hoover
Encyclopedia
Calvin Bryce Hoover was born in Berwick, Illinois
, to John Calvin Hoover and Margaret Delilah Roadcap Hoover. Hoover was a noted economist and professor. He spent 1929-1930 in Moscow
and wrote The Economic Life of Soviet Russia in 1931. Following his travels to Russia
he also traveled to and researched the economies of Germany
, Italy
, France
, Poland
, Czechoslovakia
, Denmark
, Sweden
, Norway
, and Australia
. He is considered to be the founder of the field of comparative economic systems
.
Furthermore, coming of age in the early twentieth century, Hoover felt that he had been born too late, "into an age in which nothing ever happened," and had missed the tumultuous adventures of the American frontier. This feeling was exacerbated by visits from his uncles, who had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Hoover's family valued education, and since Berwick did not have any high schools, they sent him and his sister to high school in the city of Monmouth
, the county seat 12 miles away. The family was not rich, which made sending two children to high school a difficult task for two reasons. First, it was difficult to find transportation through twelve miles or rural Illinois
(in the winter it was impossible), and he and his sister used various methods before finally taking jobs as servants in Monmouth. Second, the local high school charged tuition for to students whose families did not live in Monmouth.
Hoover enrolled in Monmouth College
in the Fall of 1914. He was an ardent supporter of the allied cause in World War I
and, as a result, felt obliged to join the fight when the United States entered the war. Consequently, he left school in 1917. This angered his father who told him, "I remember the young men who enlisted in the Confederate Army when I was a boy in the Shenandoah Valley
. They never came back. Some who waited to be conscripted did survive. If you will wait until you are drafted, I won't complain."
. His infantry regiment, however, was quickly converted into the 123rd Field Artillery regiment. Hoover received numerous promotions and eventually became a non-commissioned sergeant. He fought in the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. After the war he served in Luxembourg, with the American Army of Occupation in Germany. Of his military service he said, "My army experience cured me of being a socialist."
. He received an A.B. in 1922. Later that year, he began graduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
and studied under noted professor John R. Commons
. In 1923, he accepted a position at the University of Minnesota
while he finished his doctoral work at Wisconsin. In 1925, he left Minnesota and accepted the position of assistant professor of economics at Duke University
.
to study the Soviet banking system. Despite this limited scope, he desired to make a more complete study of the Soviet economy. He spent 1929-1930 in Moscow researching the planned economy. He found that despite several limitations, the Soviet economy was capable of consistent growth. Upon his return he was encouraged by distinguished economist John Maynard Keynes
to publish his findings. In 1931, he published an in-depth account called The Economic Life of Soviet Russia.
from 1932–1933 and witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler
and the Nazis. He found that Hitler's rearmament was revitalizing the German economy; reducing unemployment, improving standard of living, and stemming inflation. This was contrary to conventional thought of the day that insisted that a leader must choose between "guns and butter." He published his second work Germany Enters the Third Reich in 1933.
and Nazi Germany
he was called into service for the Office of Strategic Services at the outbreak of World War II
. Hoover served many roles for the OSS, eventually becoming head of Northern European operations in Sweden
. His group was instrumental in finding German synthetic oil plants, which led to their bombing and destruction. This grounded the Luftwaffe
allowing for the Normandy Invasion.
to oversee the German postwar economy. He was the architect of a proposal to restore German industry. Restoration was opposed by many in the United States
and the Soviet Union
. Many wished instead to continue the de-industrialization of Germany to a degree where she would be unable to wage war ever again. Hoover argued instead that a strong, stable German economy would help to preserve the peace.
In 1947 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom
by President Harry S. Truman
.
In 1953, he was elected president of the American Economic Association
. He continued to teach at Duke until his retirement in 1966.
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, to John Calvin Hoover and Margaret Delilah Roadcap Hoover. Hoover was a noted economist and professor. He spent 1929-1930 in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and wrote The Economic Life of Soviet Russia in 1931. Following his travels to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
he also traveled to and researched the economies of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He is considered to be the founder of the field of comparative economic systems
Comparative economic systems
Comparative economic systems is the subfield of economics dealing with the comparative study of different systems of economic organization, such as capitalism, socialism, feudalism and the mixed economy...
.
Early life and Pre-War Education
Growing up poor, Hoover worked with his father on the railroad and on their tenant farm during breaks from school. He described his early economic and political beliefs as a sort of "primitive socialism," which he came to after noticing the inequities of income in Berwick. His father also read the newspaper The Appeal to Reason, which further fostered his left leaning ideas. Hoover was also an avid reader of history and literature, and compared to the world in his books he saw his small hometown as boring. Looking back on his youth, he once wrote "I wanted to see far places and to have the adventures which both historians and novelists agreed had happened to me through the ages."Furthermore, coming of age in the early twentieth century, Hoover felt that he had been born too late, "into an age in which nothing ever happened," and had missed the tumultuous adventures of the American frontier. This feeling was exacerbated by visits from his uncles, who had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Hoover's family valued education, and since Berwick did not have any high schools, they sent him and his sister to high school in the city of Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
, the county seat 12 miles away. The family was not rich, which made sending two children to high school a difficult task for two reasons. First, it was difficult to find transportation through twelve miles or rural Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
(in the winter it was impossible), and he and his sister used various methods before finally taking jobs as servants in Monmouth. Second, the local high school charged tuition for to students whose families did not live in Monmouth.
Hoover enrolled in Monmouth College
Monmouth College
Monmouth College is a four-year coeducational private liberal arts college located in Monmouth, Illinois, United States.-History:Monmouth College was founded on April 18, 1853 by the Second Presbytery of Illinois, a frontier arm of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church...
in the Fall of 1914. He was an ardent supporter of the allied cause in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and, as a result, felt obliged to join the fight when the United States entered the war. Consequently, he left school in 1917. This angered his father who told him, "I remember the young men who enlisted in the Confederate Army when I was a boy in the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
. They never came back. Some who waited to be conscripted did survive. If you will wait until you are drafted, I won't complain."
World War I
Hoover began his Army career as an infantry private in the Illinois National GuardIllinois National Guard
The Illinois National Guard comprises both Army National Guard and Air National Guard components. The National Guard is the only United States military force empowered to function in a state status. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and...
. His infantry regiment, however, was quickly converted into the 123rd Field Artillery regiment. Hoover received numerous promotions and eventually became a non-commissioned sergeant. He fought in the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. After the war he served in Luxembourg, with the American Army of Occupation in Germany. Of his military service he said, "My army experience cured me of being a socialist."
Education
After his military service, Hoover returned to Monmouth CollegeMonmouth College
Monmouth College is a four-year coeducational private liberal arts college located in Monmouth, Illinois, United States.-History:Monmouth College was founded on April 18, 1853 by the Second Presbytery of Illinois, a frontier arm of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church...
. He received an A.B. in 1922. Later that year, he began graduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
and studied under noted professor John R. Commons
John R. Commons
John Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:Born in Hollansburg, Ohio, John R. Commons had a religious upbringing which led him to be an advocate for social justice early in life...
. In 1923, he accepted a position at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
while he finished his doctoral work at Wisconsin. In 1925, he left Minnesota and accepted the position of assistant professor of economics at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
Travel to Russia
In 1927 he was awarded a grant by the Social Science Research CouncilSocial Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
to study the Soviet banking system. Despite this limited scope, he desired to make a more complete study of the Soviet economy. He spent 1929-1930 in Moscow researching the planned economy. He found that despite several limitations, the Soviet economy was capable of consistent growth. Upon his return he was encouraged by distinguished economist John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
to publish his findings. In 1931, he published an in-depth account called The Economic Life of Soviet Russia.
Travel to Nazi Germany
Hoover went to GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
from 1932–1933 and witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazis. He found that Hitler's rearmament was revitalizing the German economy; reducing unemployment, improving standard of living, and stemming inflation. This was contrary to conventional thought of the day that insisted that a leader must choose between "guns and butter." He published his second work Germany Enters the Third Reich in 1933.
Work for U.S. Government
In 1933 he returned to his post at Duke. Later that year he was called into government service, where he would spend many of his next twelve years.Agriculture Adjustment Administration (AAA)
Hoover arrived in Washington in 1933 at the request of Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Guy Tugwell. He became the economic consultant to the Agriculture Adjustment Administration. The AAA's goal was to raise farm prices. By 1935 he was promoted to consumers' counsel to the AAA.Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
Due to his knowledge of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
he was called into service for the Office of Strategic Services at the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Hoover served many roles for the OSS, eventually becoming head of Northern European operations in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. His group was instrumental in finding German synthetic oil plants, which led to their bombing and destruction. This grounded the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
allowing for the Normandy Invasion.
The German Postwar Economy
After the end of World War II he was called to BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to oversee the German postwar economy. He was the architect of a proposal to restore German industry. Restoration was opposed by many in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Many wished instead to continue the de-industrialization of Germany to a degree where she would be unable to wage war ever again. Hoover argued instead that a strong, stable German economy would help to preserve the peace.
Later life
In late 1945 he returned to Duke, where he was named James B. Duke Professor of Economics.In 1947 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
by President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
.
In 1953, he was elected president of the American Economic Association
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association, or AEA, is a learned society in the field of economics, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics: the American Economic Review...
. He continued to teach at Duke until his retirement in 1966.
Published works
- The Economic Life of Soviet Russia. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1931.
- Germany Enters the Third Reich. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1933.
- International Trade and Domestic Employment. New York, London, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1945.
- Economic Resources and Policies of the South. New York, Macmillan, 1951.
- The Economy, Liberty, and the State. New York, Twentieth Century Fund, 1959.
- Economic Systems of the Commonwealth. Durham, Duke University Press, 1962.
- Memoirs of Capitalism, Communism, and Nazism. Durham, Duke University Press, 1965.
See also
- A Report on GermanyA Report on GermanyAfter World War II, at the request of General Lucius D. Clay, Lewis H. Brown wrote A Report on Germany, which served as a detailed recommendation for the reconstruction of post-war Germany, and served as a basis for the Marshall Plan. General Clay selected Brown to write the report because of...
- Industrial plans for GermanyIndustrial plans for GermanyThe Industrial plans for Germany were designs the Allies considered imposing on Germany in the aftermath of World War II to reduce and manage Germany's industrial capacity.-Background:...
- Restatement of Policy on GermanyRestatement of Policy on Germany"Restatement of Policy on Germany" is a famous speech by James F. Byrnes, the United States Secretary of State, held in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946.Also known as the "Speech of hope" it set the tone of future U.S...
- The President's Economic Mission to Germany and AustriaThe President's Economic Mission to Germany and AustriaThe President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria was a series of reports commissioned by US President Harry S. Truman and written by former US President Herbert Hoover....