The Hoovers were in China during The Boxer Rebellion and for almost a month the place they stayed at was under heavy fire where he worked as an engineer. They helped the local people there in various ways during this time. After the rebellion the company he worked for made him a general manager. He was well versed in the field of engineering and delivered a series of lectures at universities on engineering. When Germany declared war on France, he was asked by the American Consul General to help in getting stranded tourists home. He was also responsible for organizing and directing an American Relief Committee and in a few weeks his committee helped over 100,000 Americans return home. He was president during the 1929 Stock Market Crash and a lot of the country made him the blame for it. The Star Spangled Banner was adopted as our national anthem during his term.

He was a self made man and refused to accept a salary for the presidency. His wife, Lou Henry, was the first woman to receive a degree in geology from Stanford, and one of the first in the United States. Hoover began life as an orphan and in time became a self-made millionaire. As president he thought that aid to the hungry and the unemployed should come from local government and not from the federal government. Like the president before him he insisted that the European nations pay their war debts to the United States. On his bid for a second term he only carried six states as the country was in favor of Franklin D. Roosevelt. After retiring he continued to write and give lectures. When he was 83 he completed what his book called The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson and was the first book ever written by one president about another whom he had served.