Great American presidents are often remembered for how they steered the country through crisis.

Abraham Lincoln led the Union to victory in the Civil War, during which he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Roosevelt led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. John F. Kennedy remained cool and diplomatic during the Cuban Missile Crisis. These presidents are remembered for their steely resolve and creative action; two of them have monuments on the National Mall in Washington.

And then there are presidents remembered for their abject failure in the face of crisis. Most of these Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, to name a few are easily forgotten. Others are still alive with some control over their presidential narrative, like Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush. But not Herbert Hoover.

The nations 31st president became the patron saint of failure in office after his inept response to the Great Depression led to his landslide defeat in 1932, shattered the power of the eras conservative ideology, and made him a political whipping boy for decades to come. Even today, no president wants their name brought up in the same sentence as his but President Donald Trump s blustering, blundering and bullying response to the coronavirus pandemic is being compared to Hoovers incompetence.

HuffPost asked University of California-Davis history professor Eric Rauchway, author of Winter War: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the First Clash Over the New Deal, to talk about the comparisons between Trump and Hoover.

(The conversation has been edited for clarity.)

Hoover has sort of become this archetype or a symbol for failed presidents. And I wanted to ask you how did that happen? How did Hoover become the Hoover that we think of when we hear his name now?

Eric Rauchway: Well, of course, we generally date the beginning of the Great Depression from around sometime in the autumn of 1929 or the late summer of 1929. And thats just a few months into Hoovers term in the presidency. And then it lasts throughout the rest of his presidency. Everything he did was inadequate to the task of turning things around. In fact, the official business cycle dates say that things turn around right when Roosevelt came into office in March of 1933. So, generally speaking, Hoover had a very long time to try to do things, and he didnt do things.

Now, we could go on from there to say, well, maybe there wasnt much that could be done and possibly thats true. You can say several things in mitigation of Hoovers record. Certainly, the U.S. government had never faced a crisis like this before. Certainly, the federal budget wasnt anything like what it is now. Certainly, the federal government had never before taken over state and local functions in the way that proved to be necessary. Still, I think the most charitable thing you could say about Hoover, therefore, is that he lacked imagination. And thats too charitable, to be honest with you, because of course people told him he needed to do these things increasingly through the course of his presidency. Increasingly not even just what we might call bleeding heart liberals, but people who are of Hoovers own social circle or people whom he appointed to advise him on these tasks, and he refused to do them.