The New Deal: A Modern History

by Michael Hiltzik

Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal began as a program of short-term emergency relief measures and evolved into a truly transformative concept of the federal government’s role in Americans’ lives. More than an economic recovery plan, it was a reordering of the political system that continues to define America to this day.

With The New A Modern History , Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik offers fresh insights into this inflection point in the American experience. Here is an intimate look at the alchemy that allowed FDR to mold his multifaceted and contentious inner circle into a formidable political team. The New A Modern History shows how Roosevelt, through the force of his personality, commanded the loyalty of the rock-ribbed fiscal conservative Lewis Douglas and the radical agrarian Rexford Tugwell alike; of Harold Ickes and Harry Hopkins, one a curmudgeonly miser, the other a spendthrift idealist; of Henry Morgenthau, gentleman farmer of upstate New York; and of Frances Perkins, a prim social activist with her roots in Brahmin New England. Yet the same character traits that made him so supple and self-confident a leader would sow the seeds of the New Deal’s end, with a shocking surge of Rooseveltian misjudgments.

Understanding the New Deal may be more important today than at any time in the last eight decades . Conceived in response to a devastating financial crisis very similar to America’s most recent downturn—born of excessive speculation, indifferent regulation of banks and investment houses, and disproportionate corporate influence over the White House and Congress—the New Deal remade the country’s economic and political environment in six years of intensive experimentation. FDR had no effective model for fighting the worst economic downturn in his generation’s experience; but the New Deal has provided a model for subsequent presidents who faced challenging economic conditions, right up to the present. Hiltzik tells the story of how the New Deal was made, demonstrating that its precepts did not spring fully conceived from the mind of FDR—before or after he took office. From first to last the New Deal was a work in progress, a patchwork of often contradictory ideas. Far from reflecting solely progressive principles, the New Deal also accommodated such conservative goals as a balanced budget and the suspension of antitrust enforcement. Some programs that became part of the New Deal were borrowed from the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover; indeed, some of its most successful elements were enacted over FDR’s opposition.

In this bold reevaluation of a decisive moment in American history, Michael Hiltzik dispels decades of accumulated myths and misconceptions about the New Deal to capture with clarity and immediacy its origins, its legacy, and its genius.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, American History, Economics, Audiobook, American

512 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I knew about the New Deal. But I guess what I really "knew" about was the WPA. There was apparently so much more to it--economic and social regulations (regarding unions, monopolies, etc.), the implementation of Social Security, the manipulation of the gold standard, public utility projects, etc. On the negative side, Hiltzik showed me the terrible discrimination that took place during the time--there was very little "new" to this deal for African Americans who were cheated at every step. An excellent introduction to the subject.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly good standard history. Very old style. Talks mostly from the point of view of the politicians of the new deal era and the great depression with legislation and the alphabet soup of agencies. I mean it is a standard history viewed from the perch of power. The current that pushed a lot of that good legislation was labor activism. A point that has been becoming more clear to me of late that labor is the primary engine of the left and without it has no power to influence politics it is reduced to mere entertainment. That has been its main problem for the past fifty years impeding it from getting its way in any significant way and Labor will be crucial in its getting its act together.

[Loring Wirbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hiltzik's book hovers directly between three and four stars for me, since there are unique anecdotes within that you won't find anywhere else, even if the whole structure of the book is a little shaky. To his credit, Hiltzik makes the economic details of the New Deal's alphabet soup of agencies seem exciting, by giving us insight on people behind the scenes like Tom Corcoran and Ben Cohen.

There are times in the book when the transitions are a little weak, but Hiltzik's writing style is breezy and fun. His assessment of FDR's efforts in 1937 to pack the Supreme Court is particularly revealing. FDR's problems were similar to those of Woodrow Wilson in trying to sell the League of Nations - it seems as though both presidents were somewhat clumsy, not knowing how to handle their PR message correctly. It seems inconceivable that this could take place in the 21st-century era of 24-hour spin doctoring.

In fact, what Hiltzik's book points out is how far the pre-FDR era was from the world we know today. Some libertarians might wish we could return to a 19th-century world of farmer-yeomen and small government. But the infrastructure of Social Security, NLRB, SEC, etc. that FDR gave us is simply the new baseline functionality of government. And the kind of civil service ushered in by Chester Arthur in the 1870s is the type of government that simply is necessary in the era of globalization. FDR may be excoriated by many communities, but Hiltzik shows us that the New Deal ushered in an era that made the post-1940 United States vastly different from the nation that preceded it.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walter Lippman, who loved kissing up to power from Woodrow Wilson on, openly urged the new chief executive FDR to assume “dictatorial” authority. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) of the New Deal becomes the template for the Peace Corps, and Vista, offering pride in work. Richard Wright used his WPA funds to complete his book, ‘Native Son’. Because Hoover had sold out blacks so much, they left the Republican Party after “six decades of loyalty”. In 1930, most of the blacks still lived in the South. While the unemployment figures were 25%, but for blacks, it was 50%. In order to keep the Dixiecrats as part of the Democratic party, FDR was not a lot better than Hoover, although he appointed Harold Ickes who had worked for the NAACP, and Ickes helped the black cause when possible. The New Deal was supposed to protect the “forgotten man” but in the end, blacks were watching each program widen the gulf between black and white, especially in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Black voting was “almost nonexistent in the South due to poll tax restrictions, and considered “unimportant” in the North. Because structural racism insured Blacks couldn’t vote, power didn’t need to care about their concerns. “The black agricultural class was the most exploited group in America.” “Through 1940, as many as two hundred thousand black farmers were driven off their land.” The Resettlement Administration (later called the Farm Security Administration) started by Rex Tugwell, ended up run with the most “colorblindness.” FDR’s Supreme Court packing scheme backfires big time and unleashes anti-New Deal forces. When lawmakers started destroying New Deal organizations, not surprisingly, the successful RA helping the poor and blacks was one of the first to go. Because of the Dixiecrats being part of the Democratic party still, the Black was the “forgotten man” of the New Deal. The Southern bloc would never give way on an anti-lynching bill, and FDR needed the southerners to agree to his other policies and not block them (if FDR dared take any bold non-racist stance). “In 1934, the American worker turned strike happy”; in 1934 alone, there were “nearly 1,900 major work stoppages involving nearly 1.5 million workers.” The Federal Art Project of the New Deal placed 2,566 murals and 17, 744 sculptures in public spaces around the country. FDR averaged fewer than three fireside chats per year.

The critique of the New Deal by and large was the critique made by Big Business against assistance to the common American. Not surprisingly, this critique was made by those who spoil the planet in the name of profit. To the Supreme Court FDR ends up appointing Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and William O. Douglas. This team will give us Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Although FDR was unable to help Blacks directly, the Administration was known for increasing the hopes of the common man. Marion Anderson’s amazing concert at the Lincoln Memorial happened because Harold Ickes Interior Department controlled the memorial. FDR quickly approved the idea. “The New Deal effectively ended in 1939.” It had meant to the People, that in times of trouble their government would help them; ‘the New Deal established the concept of economic security.” That the New Deal represented “a turning point in the relationship between government and the governed”; a turning point that would lead both the political center and right to plot the New Deal’s total dismemberment from then until now.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a great deal about FDR’s administration and the New Deal, including this book; I reread it because the subject– and even more so, the people who played a role in it – makes for such engrossing reading.

Hiltzik’s book is about a new president, coming to power during an unprecedented trauma, on the heels of a floundering president who failed to quell the country’s anxieties. We will see if the election in the autumn of 2020 repeats this scenario.

FDR’s New Deal involved a flurry of new ideas, new agencies and new tactics, much of which went on to transform American society. It was born of his desire to do something – anything – to alleviate the Great Depression, and there were some flops to be sure. And there were some good programs, such as Federal One, begun to provide work to actors, musicians, stagehands, designers and artists, which were actually good ones, defeated by congressional obsession with “communism.”

The people FDR drew together and the way in which he used their respective talents, is a remarkable tale. He could be duplicitous, often telling subordinates what they wanted to hear, rather than what he would eventually do. He also pitted them against each other in ways that are unattractive. Roosevelt was not without his flaws; Hiltzik makes no bones about the fact that FDR’s plan to enlarge the Supreme Court was foolishly done in a fit of pique and cost him political capital.

But Roosevelt and those who labored to make the New Deal a reality were fearless, in ways that we have not seen since then. It’s time for a return of this fearlessness and for a return of the recognition that something – anything – to alleviate the country’s misery, is sorely needed.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent review of the New Deal, the motivations and organization of Roosevelt (and his Brain Trusters) and more.

Some of the best analysis is near the end. Economists like Paul Krugman have had to defend the new Deal, and Keynsianism in general, against charges it actually made the Depression worse, by citing FDR's second term balanced budget focus. Hiltzik goes even further and notes that in Roosevelt's first term, only one year had a near-adequate amount of stimulus, with deflationary measures undercutting stimulus ones in other years. He even has Roosevelt's own words to quote. And ,he doesn't hesitate to tie this back to today.

Hiltzik also has a short but insightful chapter on the Supreme Court packing decision, including noting that, even after Roosevelt started getting "better" votes from the court, he couldn't let go of the "packing" idea.

Hiltzik also, among other things, says we should drop the "100 Days" focus, and more, of New Deal study.

Finally, Hiltzik, among many other things, notes that FDR's fear of "the dole" led him to reject the ideas of Frances Perkins and others, and NOT fund Social Security immediately and out of general revenue. (The immediate payroll tax deductions, but without benefits payments until the 1940s, were one of those deflationary measures mentioned above.)

This is an excellent starter and overview book on the New Deal. Without calling them "parallels," Hitzlik lets the reader see just how some of FDR's actions, and lack of system behind them, and the results of lack of system, apply well to The Great Recession of today and its aftermath, too.

[Michael Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A balanced history of the New Deal and issues and personalities involved, this work brings to life one of the most important eras in American - even world - history. This book also dispels myths about the project and demonstrates to the non-American reader the successes and flaws of this massive endeavor.

The New Deal was a watershed; its legacies are still around today: Social Security, infrastructure, environmental conservation, the judicious regulation of private enterprise, etc. But there is another legacy of the New Deal that has profound relevance today as it had 80 years ago: that government can - and should be- a force for good.

[Debra]

In progress, but so far I'm enjoying it.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice overview of the New Deal

[Eric Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new deal, a seminal era in American history, saw government take an active role in promoting the welfare of the citizens. In The New Deal, journalist Michael Hiltzik, tells the story of the people, policies, and actions that shaped the nation.

In 1933, after 10 years of Republican rule, Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States. The country was in disarray. Unemployment reached 25%, industrial production had been cut in half, and almost 50% of farmers defaulted on their mortgages. In Washington D.C., Republican President Herbert Hoover ordered the Army to attack thousands of military veterans peacefully protesting over pensions. In Iowa, martial law was declared after a judge was nearly lynched for proceeding with foreclosures. In Louisiana, Senator Huey Long called for capping individual wealth and redistributing it to society. Over two million people signed up for the campaign. You could argue that unless something drastic was done, America was on the verge of following Russia into revolution.

On paper, Roosevelt may have been least likely to stop the tide of revolutionary fervor. He was born to massive economic privilege but promised a “new deal” for the American people. One where the government wasn’t a silent bystander to the whims of the powerful, but rather an enabler of individual liberty. The liberty would be created through public investment in infrastructure, regulation, and jobs. “The new dealers did not think about government in the limited terms of their predecessors, as agency of national defense and little else.” Hilzik writes. “They understood that it was a powerful force and that its power could be exercised by inaction as well as action, to very different ends.”

By the end of the era, FDR provided financial liberty by enacting policies that ended bank failures, created old-age pensions, and regulated the stock market. He expanded the nation’s infrastructure to include:

1,000 miles of new and rebuilt airport runways
651,000 highways
124,000 bridges
8,000 parks
18,000 playgrounds and athletic fields
84,000 miles of drainage pipes
69,000 highway light standards
125,000 public buildings repaired and built (41,300 schools)
Most importantly he began using the federal government as a balance against centralized private interests. Roosevelt held that private individuals are no match for the organization and power of an industrial baron. “The first truth,” he told Congress in 1939, “is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.” Nowhere was this more evident in the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In the early 1930s, the Tennessee River Valley was 640,000 square miles of squalor. The region’s once lush forests were clear-cut, replaced with eroded and worthless soil. This destroyed the area’s pocket book and soul. Unable to sustain commercial farming, the average citizen saw their per capita income drop to less than half the national average. Without money, communities could not sustain basic medical services and infant mortality skyrocketed to four times the normal rate.

The solution, said the previous administration, was private companies. Like the modern Republican party today, the Republican party of the 1930s viewed privatization as the only American form of progress. This flew in the face of reason—especially when it came to societal issues like energy production. Private energy companies supplied and transported the region’s power, but operated as a trust. This meant opaque control and exuberant prices. It was over fifty years since Edison debuted the lightbulb, and about one percent of the region’s farms had electricity. When public pressure over rates mounted, the trusts would bribe government regulators and purchase local newspapers to quell dissent. Roosevelt (and many rural Republicans) felt that a public power system centered around a decommissioned Army dam in Muscle Shoals, Alabama would counterweight the blatant profiteering.

In the mind of FDR, access to electricity increased a person’s liberty. Not having power blocked the area’s residents from the new economy. It prevented them from learning new machines, working at night, and the domestic comforts of the new age. Perhaps equally important, it walled off nearly an entire country’s worth of consumers from the nation’s industry. If a private business weren’t providing the electricity, the government could. The power trust, led by its leader and future Republican Presidential nominee Wendell Willkie, argued that government interference would immediately erase $300,000,000 in value.

Roosevelt and his group of bi-partisan supporters were right—Willkie was wrong. By the end of the 1940s. essentially all homes in the Tennessee Valley had power. In fact, the area became one of the nation’s top energy users. The living standards rebounded. The potential revolution was stopped, and FDR created the foundation for thirty years of unprecedented economic growth.

We’re entering into an uncharted era in politics. One defined by Donald Trump and supported by the same arguments that led to the Great Depression, The New Deal is a worthwhile read.

This review originally appeared at my website.. Check it out for more book reviews and analysis.

[Todd Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My recollection of ‘The New Deal’ is that it was responsible for Social Security and the Civilian Conservation Corp, but what I didn’t realize was how comprehensive the program was and that much of it was enacted in the first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration. It included:
- Banking reform including the Glass-Steagall Act and the establishment of deposit insurance (FDIC).
- Monetary reform such as suspension of the gold standard.
- Relief Programs such as the Food Stamp Plan.
- The Securities Act, which standardized how corporations reported profits and losses.
- Repeal of prohibition.
- Public works spending on government buildings, airports, hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, and dams.
- Work programs such as the National Labor Relations Act to protect labor organizing and formation of the Works Progress Administration.
- Labor protections such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage, prohibited child labor and set the maximum work week at 44 hours.
- Farm programs such as the Farmers' Relief Act, Agricultural Adjustment Act and formation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to raise prices farmers received, as well as formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority to help reduce flooding and generate electricity.
- The Federal Art Project to fund the visual arts.
And many more.

Conservatives objected to many of Roosevelt’s programs because they increased the national debt and expanded the powers of the federal government. This included conservatives on the supreme court who declared several programs unconstitutional, setting off a clash between the executive and judicial branches of government. Roosevelt felt that a body of 9 unelected officials had no business interfering in the self-governance of the country stating “We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution – not over it. In our courts we want a government of laws and not of men.” Roosevelt’s scheme to expand the number of justices on the court failed, however, and the court prevailed, allowing them to retain the power of ‘judicial review’ (despite the fact that is found nowhere in the constitution).

Not all of these programs were successful, but the general consensus is that The New Deal helped reduce unemployment, grow the economy, reduce poverty and bring an end to the Great Depression. Several programs were so effective, in fact, that they are still around today including:
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae)
- National Labor Relations Board
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- Social Security
- Soil Conservation Service
- Tennessee Valley Authority
Not to mention the infrastructure built by the Civil Works Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps, which is still used by millions of Americans each day. And that, of course, is why republicans are trying to dismantle them. They fly in the face of the farcical right-wing narrative that private enterprise and the free market are the only means to solve the nations problems (if you’d simply ignore the country’s privatized healthcare system, which ranks last among 11 high-income countries based on an analysis of 71 measures in the categories of: access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes).

As to the book … despite its prodigious length, it was good. It really gives a sense of the uncertainty and policy experimentation that was taking place under FDR. There were no guarantees that these programs would be successful and yet, in retrospect, The New Deal was one of the most transformational moments in the nation’s political history. On the downside, it made me long for the days when the country could accomplish big things for the betterment of its citizens.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably a good enough book if your interest in the New Deal is archival. But if you're looking for a truly "modern history" of FDR's iconic program, this probably isn't it. I have to be honest -- Though I normally force myself to finish a book once I've started it, no matter how hard, I put this book down about 75% of the way through, as the work to get through it didn't seem to justify the time and effort. So, my comments below may not apply to the last 25% of the book.

With all the talk of a Green New Deal these days, I was looking to Hiltzik's book for guidance on the politics of the original New Deal. What movement led to both FDR's election and the concepts of the New Deal? That would be some other book, I guess. This one opens just a few days before FDR's inauguration and from there, it's mostly about what happens inside the administration.

Hiltzik's heroes are not activists who pushed the administration to move away from the corporate consensus that had guided Washington's approach to the economy since the late 19th century and up through Hoover. His hero is not even FDR, who today's reader probably expects to play the starring role. Instead, Hiltzik's heroes are the unsung federal bureaucrats who ran New Deal programs, from cabinet secretaries to heads of alphabet agencies like the NRA and the CCC, to "brilliant young attorneys" in FDR's Brain Trust skilled in drafting crackerjack legislation tightly written enough to make it through Congress.

All necessary to know for the historian of the period, but less interesting as a model for how to get a modern variant on the New Deal enacted in the first place. To me, Hiltzig gives valuable detail on what happened in the last mile. But on the 99 miles it took to invent the philosophy behind the New Deal approach, to get FDR into the White House in the first place, and the significance of the New Deal for future generations, Hiltzig has little to say.

Again, perhaps Hiltzig deals with those questions at the end. I guess I could skim it to see. But after getting through 300 pages, I guess I'm just not optimistic about it.

[Gina Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this 5 stars because it's a book about the New Deal that MADE ME CRY. There's a section at the end that tells the story of Marian Anderson's performance at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, and maybe it's corny, but the earnestness and the hope...it was just beautiful and too much for my sap of a brain.

I've come away from listening to this with a confidence that the New Deal was definitely a good thing. Hot take, I know. But I'm interested in learning what I can about it to make sure I can endorse its expansion, because I think it might help make a lot of things better. I'm going to have to listen to it all over, so it can penetrate (there's so much to learn, even in this ONE BOOK), but I'm looking forward to it. It's damned interesting, and the reader has a rich, friendly voice that lends itself well to just a slight mimicry of the speakers whose quotes he reads. Good stuff.

[John Lim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hiltzik does a great job of bringing the behind-the-scenes characters of the New Deal to life. The New Deal was far more than the work of Roosevelt in his first hundred days: it was a sometimes contradictory mish-mash of policies, cobbled together by dozens of clashing bureaucrats and pushed through by the charismatic FDR. Definitely recommend the sections about the CCC, TVA, and Federal One.

The writing, though relatively clear, often made me wonder if the text Hiltzik consulted most often was a GRE vocab book. Recommended for people who have the patience to keep track of all the cabinet members/Brain Trusters in the book. Also, for those with an appreciation of macroeconomic policy. I can't say I had either.

[Lucas Suter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a clear eyed and comprehensively overview of the chaotic period from 1933-1939 now known as the New Deal. Hiltzik pulls punches in identifying the New Deal's shortcomings, such as preserving Jim Crow and occasionally establishing programs that failed to help anyone but big business, but he does not give in to nonsensical right wing charges that the New Deal slowed recovery from the Depression. He writes in an accessible, matter-of-fact tone and has created a book all Americans should read.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fair, objective, in-depth look at what the New Deal actually was, and how it changed the course of American history. It was so interesting to learn about the personalities and politics involved (though I will admit most of the economics are still over my head). The author clearly recognizes the New Deal's many flaws, but ultimately proves it to have been a successful experiment, that really did relieve the suffering of so many people during a very difficult time.

[Will Graham Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was insightful, but pretty dry and hard to get through.

[Damien A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense with information. Good read

[Raymond Ozuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a democracy, no person has the right to be a loafer.

[kate]

I read this a year ago, now I have heard that ken burns is doing a documentary, which is understandable.

Things that I found of note: a 100 days checklist that roosevelt's administration somehow pushed through the congress/senate - imagine a government in the us accomplishing things that quickly. then, as support faded for roosevelt's new deal, how similar the criticism sounds to the criticism of the tea partiers, the conservatives - today.

I could not help but imagine the new deal, version 2014, meeting today's political climate and falling flat on its face.

The discrimination that works against helping white collar workers during economic crises continues, the administration had a very difficult time explaining to the tea partiers of then that white collar workers needed jobs too - "go dig a ditch" was a common refrain.

Finally, the arts fostered by roosevelt's new deal. Here is a link to "the cradle will rock" which was a controversy at the time and the lines provided in the book are hilarious.

http://www.noahdiamond.com/thecradlew...


What struck me was how little things are different, in terms of the opposition to new ideas and the chattering of the media and pundit. the media is constantly saying "it used to be that..." but this book clearly details that, in fact, it has always been partisan to the point of irrationality, people actually virulently opposed the New Deal, which has since become universally remembered as positive.

A very good intro to the attempted rescue of the american economy and drowning american worker, some radical social experiments, acerbic theater and Roosevelt's political skills. It makes idealism something okay to be caught engaging in, which was a nice change.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this as a follow up to doris kearns goodwin's no ordinary time, assuming that a look at the decade prior to her focus (the 40's, i.e. the roosevelt administration during the war) would do me good. i suppose it did, but be forewarned: hiltzik's book is not for the average layperson (like me). this book is filled to the rafters with wonky policy stuff and detailed acounts of political in-fighting. no ordinary time was too, but goodwin is a gifted enough writer to make it seem literary and exciting. hiltzik doesn't share her gifts, frankly, and mostly sticks to the facts.

and OH MAN are there a lot of facts. you will hear minute details about the personality clashes between harry hopkins and harold ickes. you will learn an inordinate amount about herbert hoover before you even get to FDR's election. you'll learn all about the early days of social security - as well as roosevelt's surprising reluctance toward many of the progressive (and to a certain extent keynesian) policies he is now associated with.

what you won't learn much about is eleanor roosevelt's role in all of this. or social history, save a short chapter about race relations and some interesting stuff about the federal theater project and the WPA. there's a particularly fascinating morsel about john houseman, who i know as ricky schroder's grandpa who makes money the old fashioned way, but was actually quite the provocateur in the 30's!

if you're a historian or an economist, there's plenty here worth diving into. if you're the sort of person who likes the occasional popular history door-stopper (like myself), there are probably less technical choices that will do the trick.

[Blane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reactionary Supreme Court!
Paranoid screams of creeping Socialism!
Cries of class warfare!
A tax code that benefits only the super-wealthy!
A president hated by conservatives for being too liberal and similarly disliked by liberals for being too conservative!
A middle class practically begging for financial relief!
An aristocratic class complaining about too much governmental intervention while benefiting more than anyone else from the policies of that very government!
Media demagogues denouncing the president & finding commies under ever rock!

Is this a book about the Obama administration? No! It's a book about FDR's New Deal & it's pretty good, if you can keep all of the names & time frame straight. What surprised me most about this history was how FDR & his staff were pretty much working by the seat of their pants through the New Deal...they did not seem to have a definite vision of what they were doing. And that was certainly not a bad thing--if this didn't work, they tried that, etc. Less surprising was how FDR (pretty much) refused to back down to the corporate, medical, & banking interests, who were then (like now) quite pleased with the status quo. This when it would have probably been more politically expedient for him to "play ball" with them. He was more concerned with actually solving the country's economic problems of the time. We need a leader like him now...unfortunately Obama showed early promise, but failed to deliver by backing down to those corporate, medical, & banking interests.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Hiltzik has written the book that expands on what (most) of us learned in history class: FDR got elected with a promise to shake things up and get the country out of the Depression. His Brain Trust threw a whole bunch of things at the wall and went with whatever stuck. (Ok, that's what I learned at least. Also, I knew vaguely some of the names involved, mostly Ickes, Perkins, Brandeis, and Morganthau.)

Hiltzik goes into detail, fleshing out those bare bones and giving a good impression of just how chaotic things were immediately before and just after Roosevelt took office. Anyone who had an idea (and could get past the gatekeepers) could pitch it to the President, and if he liked it, it just might turn into a national program. More to the point, Hiltzik also goes into the personalities and the politics that shaped the New Deal. (Full disclosure: a who's who cheat sheet may be helpful. You may also want one for the slew of acronyms. Even for the wonkish it can get confusing.)

The author is also frank about the negatives and the failures- notably FDR's miscalculation on how to handle a truculent Supreme Court, and the dismal record at helping black citizens. I think it's in light of that last failure that the author inexplicably includes the Marion Anderson concert in a book that is otherwise more about administration policy than wider social history. (Either that, or the author was already contemplating his next project...)

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

History is rarely this relevant. It is possible, even likely, that Hiltzik's history of the "New Deal" and the USA of the late 1930s looks at this past through the looking glass of the economic crisis of our time. But while hindsight may cause us to focus us selectively on the parallelisms with our own time, it is still remarkable how strong the similarities are. But we can find some comfort in the thought that our time, nevertheless, is nowhere near as bad as the 1930s were.

The author rejects the notion that the policies of the "New Deal" were the result of a coherent plan. Instead, he highlights the flexibility and the built-in contradictions of FDR's own ideas, and his tendency to choose advisors with a wide diversity of opinions. As a result, this is less the history of a political program or an ideology, than the history of a group of people. Some of them were remarkably successful, others collapsed under the strain of attempting to manage an economy in crisis. Hiltzik's portraits of these people are usually sympathetic but far from uncritical, lively and convincing.

Because the economic problems and the ideological debates of today's USA are not that different from those of the 1930s, this book cannot avoid making controversial assessments. The author clearly sides with those who regard FDR's policies as a source of inspiration for today, but not without pointing out the substantial errors and failures of the administration.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

While many books have been written about the Depression Era and the New Deal this one provides an excellent history. A different view of the players and the actions they undertook than that generally taught. In fact many of the players have been forgotten. Rather than concentrating on the "First Hundred Days" and the Court-packing debacle the author put them in perspective and therefore their rightful place. A lot of people who think they know history will find interesting tidbits, like the settlement of the West Coast Dockers strike by allowing the unions to control waterfront hiring and establishing shorter hours and improved overtime pay as being the first time in memory (at the time) of the government siding with the workers. In all earlier disputes the government came down on the side of the 'employers'.
What reader's will find interesting is the similarity between what FDR inherited from Hoover and what Obama inherited from Bush: "excessive speculation in housing and financial assets (esp. if one considers private equity firms to be holding companies), inadequate regulation of financial institutions, and imprudent behavior by the managements of major banks and investment houses." Other similarities are: wealth concentrated in few hands and heavy business influence in Congress.
I recommend this book for those who are interested in the country's history and would like to learn from it.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS

[Patricrk patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at the period 1932-1938. So much of the social fabric of modern America dates from this period. It was interesting to see how it came about and the parallels in 2011.

[L.A. Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good work, if obviously pro-New Deal and pro-FDR. A great intro to the time period and to some of the thought that led up to it.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read!