President H. Hoover, a Republican, was known for his laissez-faire policies and he campaigned based on the economic prosperity of the Coolidge period. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, the US government was blamed for not providing a lot of urgent social assistance to high numbers of suffering people. People evicted from their homes built shantytowns in US cities that were called Hoovervilles. He started some social and public works programs that provided the basis for the future New Deal, but the pubic perception that prevailed was that of social insensitivity.
