Herbert Hoover's Apologia of His Chinese Mining Career 1899-1912 -- Untangling the Refutation Campaign

Abstract

The overarching aim of this study is to reposition the records of the refutation campaign preserved at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library (HHPL) in West Branch, Iowa as essential in the historiography of Hoover. In the years 1895-1901, it was feared that China would be carved up by imperialistic powers as the world powers scrambled for concessions in China. Hoover’s Chinese mining career took place during the turmoil of the political instability in China and he was a transnational player in the battle of concessions. By putting Hoover’s deliberate efforts to conceal and to change the narrative of his Chinese mining career in direct relation to the historical events that they referenced, namely his mining career in China (1899-1901), his time as a board member of the CEMC (1901-1912), and the CEMC’s recruitment and transportation of 63,695 Chinese to South Africa (1904-1910), it will elucidate how these efforts filled the public sphere with myths and fragmented the American historiography.