Why the New Deal Matters

Why X Matters Series

by Eric Rauchway

The greatest peaceable expression of common purpose in US history, the New Deal altered Americans' relationship with politics, economics, and one another in ways that continue to resonate today. No matter where you look in America, there is likely a building or bridge built through New Deal initiatives. If you have taken out a small business loan from the federal government or drawn unemployment, you can thank the New Deal. While certainly flawed in many aspects--the New Deal was implemented by a Democratic Party still beholden to the segregationist South for its majorities in Congress and the Electoral College--the New Deal was instated at a time of mass unemployment and the rise of fascistic government models and functioned as a bulwark of American democracy in hard times. This book looks at how this legacy, both for good and ill, informs the current debates around governmental responses to crises.

Genres: History, Politics, American History, Nonfiction, Economics, American, Book Club

231 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2021

About the author

Eric Rauchway is an American historian and professor at the University of California, Davis. Rauchway's scholarship focuses on modern US political, social and economic history, particularly the Progressive Era and the New Deal.

Reviews

[Wick Welker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Deal was fundamental to the success of the United States.

This was an okay book about the New Deal era policies put in place but I found it a little lack luster with the details and the overall larger picture. We get a lot of stuff about the Bonus Army, the setting for the New Deal polices, the politics surrounding that time and the institution of the host of ABC agencies put in place that helped stabilize the economy and employment. This book just wasn't as comprehensive as I was hoping and leaned a little to heavy on anecdote rather than hard data of modern day impact of the policies. I appreciated the detail about the race selective polices of New Deal politics and the intergeneration impact that has had and still has today.

Aside from just this book, major misconceptions and outright deceptions of the New Deal remain today. We've learned a lot about the New Deal and it can greatly inform policy in the future. First, the New Deal was not socialism, as defined as a wholesale community or public owned means of production, distribution and ownership. The New Deal was also not democratic socialism in which the economy is socialized. The New Deal was social democratic reform policy which, by it's nature, is simply pragmatic and very technocratic problem solving. Social democracy is where private means of production and ownership very much continue to exist where most wealth is produced privately and the capital gets taxed and used for the public in a more judicious and equitable way. Social democracy promotes heavy capital taxing, anti-trust and business regulation.

The next thing the New Deal taught us is that social democratic policy does not lead to communism. How do we know this? Because... it didn't (despite Hayek's moral panic). Social democracy is not some revolutionary vanguard party that kills the bourgeois and places itself on a totalitarian throne. Social democracy is a bunch of dorky policy wonks who tinker with regulation and taxing. The next thing I'll say about what we learn from the New Deal is that it worked. Yes. It worked. New Deal policies and agencies helped create the richest generation that has ever existed on the planet with white selective affirmative action. All the current baby boomers who decry "woke socialism" seem to be unaware that the very wealth they've accumulate is because of government de jure, white affirmative action policies that used tax payer money to give them land, education, home mortgages and social security.

Anyway, there are probably better books out there about the New Deal. Any suggestions?

[Poptart19 (the name’s ren) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

An engaging, well researched read that discusses the origins, successes, & failures of the New Deal. It also applies how the policies & long term effects have shaped the current fabric of US society, & what lessons we might take from it to make progress addressing current issues such as climate change, the pandemic, & economic weaknesses.

[What I liked:]

•I appreciate that this book doesn’t just document past history, but also shows how the New Deal shapes our daily life in the US (infrastructure, public services, labor laws, economic safe guards, & resource development), & the dangers presented by its gradual erosion that has taken place since the 1930’s. It made the text interesting from a historical reference, but also very relevant to today.

•The book points out the many positives brought by New Deal policies, but does not neglect to address the failures: the racism, sexism, & other injustices it was unable to adequately address or even reinforced. This gives some reference point for how policies can be improved.

•The writing style is easy to digest, weaving together narrative & real life characters with more statistical information. It does not attempt to be an exhaustive exploration of the topic, but to provide a few concrete examples. It’s a nice length for a more casual reader of history.

•There are extensive footnotes & resources in the appendix. I appreciate the work & care that went into the research, as well as the ability to synthesize the wealth of information into a focused, approachable text.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•I know it’s not the main focus of the text, & it was addressed in some depth in the intro & conclusion, but I’m interested to read more of the writer’s thoughts on updating, reinstating, reinventing, & strengthening the New Deal policies to address current social, economic, & development issues. There’s a lot more there to explore & expound on, perhaps in a future book.

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, interesting book about the New Deal from one of the leading scholars in that field. Instead of a chronological narrative, ER offers illustrations of the New Deal's impact and legacies by going from place to place in the United States. He looks at New Deal programs' effects in Indian territories, a factory town, San Francisco, the Clinch River in TN, and elsewhere. In each case, he shows how New Deal programs changed daily life, the built environment, and economic affairs at the local level. He then ends with more of a wrap-up chapter that talks about some of the main ideas to help the reader see the big picture.

This is a good book if you already have a decent working knowledge of the New Deal, maybe undergraduate level. I also would have liked to see more engagement with the global context of the New Deal, and a little more on its legacy in creating a welfare and regulatory state going forward from the 1930s.

Putting these minor critiques aside, ER illuminates some of the key themes of the ND. It wasn't just about economic issues like recovery from the NEw Deal, stabilizing the financial system, and empowering consumers. It was also a collective moral and social project of profound democratic depth and legitimacy. It was about what citizens owed to each other and wha the state owed to citizens. It strongly emphasized work rather than simply "the dole," a shared value between elites like FDR and ordinary Americans who wanted to work. ND programs acknowledged that people needed not just jobs, electrification, public works, bridges, and so on, but meaning and community, so it provided funding for public art and music, shared spaces, stadia, oral history programs, and other sources of enrichment. The ND looked at people as deserving of dignity, whether that was the promise to never let an American starve or the grandeur and utility of public works projects or putting in your share to help with recovery. The American people voted for it over and over again, and it has never really been rolled back much even by people like Reagan who promised to do so. This book does a nice job helping people today understand the spirit and meaning of the ND, although for a deeper dive one will have to check out something like Katznelson's outstanding (if lengthy) Fear Itself.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy reading books about American history and politics and the New Deal is something that is often mentioned. This book came to me at the right time as it’s a short overview of the various impacts of the New Deal on different populations in the US.

To me, this book needed to be longer. Rauchway is clearly an expert in this topic and highlighted some interesting effects of the New Deal on indigenous communities and black Americans. However, I feel like these topics needed more room to develop and more details.

Overall, this book served as a good introduction to the topic. As I was coming into this knowing very little, there were some confusing portions but on the whole it made me intrigued to explore the subject further.

3 out of 5 stars!

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rauchway does something that I think is hard for a history book to do: make the New Deal engaging to read about. There is a lot here to take away; he makes a very compelling argument that the New Deal is all around us and that it has never really gone away. Where a lot of history of the New Deal does not mention the impact of native groups and minorities, he devotes full chapters to them. While I had known of John Collier, Rauchway's exploration of his policy decisions was fascinating.

Each chapter is based around a key event or development; I found the first chapter extremely enlightening. By using the Bonus Army as a background, Rauchway describes Hoover's philosophy towards activist government. The last chapter brings the New Deal directly to our own sidewalks- literally.

As a teacher, there is a lot of accessible history that can be a way of engaging students in history that gets muddled up with "alphabet soup" and the minutiae of policy-making. If you want a place to begin looking at the personal and social impacts of FDR's activism, this is a very good place to begin

[Robert Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book. For almost 50 years now, the governing ideology of the United States has been a sort of Reaganite Libertarianism. Big Business can do no wrong, the government can do no right. Markets are the answer to everything. Eric Rauchway has made a career of showing that this reading of history is deeply faulty. The main reason that our last 50 years of break-neck capitalism has had what little success it has had, is because of the institutional stability and solid societal and economic foundation laid by good government. This is the story of the New Deal.

Rauchway has told this story in bigger books that dive into specific aspects of the massive suite of government programs and societal shifts that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted to combat the Great Depression in the 1930s. It's an immense story that encompasses vastly more of US government and society than most contemporary commentators acknowledge. It takes immense skill and erudition to provide a sense of what the New Deal was about and why it matters in as small a package as this book, but I think Rauchway pulls it off.

The book is a mere 180 pages, making any attempt at comprehensiveness or chronology impossible. Instead Rauchway chooses a series of approaches at single aspects of the New Deal, that shed interesting light on the topic as a whole. He covers the Tennessee Valley Authority, race relations, the various public works programs and a few other aspects in compact chapters that give you a sense of what mattered, and why this set of programs and societal shifts still matters almost a century later.

The book was published in 2021, and Rauchway was eager to connect the large societal mobilization to combat the depression to the pandemic response that was on-going at the time. The New Deal was an interesting window through which to view that era, but I think its even more valuable for our own, here in 2025. The second Trump administration is busily dismantling what's left of Roosevelt's legacy, even though it's been pretty clear since 2008 that we should be running towards Roosevelt, not away from him. In truth, this book is always useful, because the New Deal always matters. It will continue to matter as long as there is a United States.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rauchway packs a huge punch into only ~180 pages on the New Deal, its successes, shortcomings, and its impact on our lives 90 years later in concrete, spiritual, and intangible terms. I enjoyed the framing device of using specific locations to link to large projects and New Deal programs (such as the TVA and the WPA), each serving to pull the thread on a history of an aspect of the New Deal. These capsule histories also covered how these programs connected to the overall objectives of the New Deal, which was far more than just federal jobs programs.

Rauchway convincingly demonstrates how FDR intended the New Deal to defend democracy in America, and in its role as a beacon for democracy, for the rest of the world as many European states descended into totalitarianism. FDR needed the New Deal not just to fix the financial issues underlying the Great Depression, but to essentially recommit Americans to each other, through the active intervention of the state. Although this had some familiarity with the Progressive Era under Roosevelt and Wilson, it was of such a different scale that it still holds our imagination today (one way the New Deal still matters).

I particularly enjoyed Rauchway's clear-sightedness about the failings and shortcomings of the New Deal. These include the way Southern Democrats were able to preserve white supremacy and segregation in many New Deal programs, as well as the FHA and HOLC codifying redlining and racist appraisal guidelines that have contributed to the racial wealth gap. This is the first time I've learned about the hopes and failures of the Indian New Deal and its flawed administration under Collier. The final flaw discussed, that the New Deal was actually never big enough to fully defeat the Depression, is made extremely clear.

Although this is not an exhaustive history of the New Deal, it serves as an introduction to its components, impacts, and why it still holds activists' imaginations to this day.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting look at FDR’s New Deal. If you’re unfamiliar with the New Deal’s programs it’s a very good start. It was also a very timely book as it came out during the pandemic and there was a lot of talk of stimulus and bailouts. The line I liked the most is that a Stimulus and Bailout assume that the system is working for everyone, but just needs a boost. The Administration’s New Deal policies recognized, or at least try to show, that the system was broken and we needed to build something new.

I do wish that Rauchway spent more time on the negative effects and shortcomings on the New Deal. We get mentions of discrimination against Native Americans and the topic of either forced or desired Assimilation, there’s talk about the new deal enabling redlining in black communities, and also local offices discriminating on the basis of race, but I wish there was more analysis there. Each of those topics have books and articles and studies that focus solely on that issue so I understand for the sake of size, full analyses may not have been achievable in one single book. I just found myself wishing there was discussion on a deeper level.

All in all pretty good introduction to the New Deal and definitely a good place to start and read on further.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an audiobook version of this book available through hoopla. I struggle with a lot of nonfiction books on audiobook and this book was no different, but from what I feel I gathered and retained from the book I thought it was a good history of the New Deal. It is honest about its shortcomings while also demonstrating that the critiques of the New Deal (that it didn't help people during the Depression) are unfounded. In fact, one could argue that the New Deal wasn't aggressive enough in providing jobs and relief to citizens. I also think it provides really good insight into the differing motivations behind FDR and Hoover. Hoover does come across as an architect of modern conservatism in his talking points regarding government intervention while FDR appears to be responding to the rise of fascism in Europe and places home in economic relief to turn back that anti-democratic tendency (which I gather from the book was the correct analysis of the situation in late 1920s, early 1930s US). All-in-all a quick and accessible read. I would recommend.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, providing a quick but detailed overview of FDR’s New Deal and its continued presence today. The author, historian Eric Rauchway, obviously pumped out this book quickly, intending it as a contribution to the 2020 debate on the economic recovery. It is pointed in its thrust, Rauchway very much falling into the Keynesian side of economic thought. Nonetheless, the book does a good job in describing how specific elements of the New Deal were enacted. The false starts, over-reach, and unequal distribution are laid out alongside the successes. The overarching theme is of the continuing legacy of the New Deal, not just in the average citizen’s relation to government but in the physical presence of things and the continuation of the American political system. Indeed, in between the good historical narrative Rauchway makes one of the more contentious positive arguments for the New Deal I’ve yet seen. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to better understand the relationship between politics and economics in US history.

[Peter Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book takes a different approach on how to discuss The New Deal. Rather than cover every detail of the whole story, the author picks out the elements he considers most important. However, if one undertakes the task of discussing something as monumentally important to this country’s history, shouldn’t it be thorough and complete?
4 very relevant things I didn’t see in the book: Hooverville, Breadlines, The Hoover Dam, and FDR’s Fireside Chats. These 4 very relevant things were important that, I think, should be woven into any story about The New Deal.
What about the whole story of trying to cover up his disability and the severe pain FDR was enduring just to stand and give another inspirational speech? Wasn’t this disability a contributing factor in , not only, FDR’s personal strength, but a role model for all Americans to gain strength through tough times?

[Cyrus Gazdar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book while on vacation. It was one of my personal favourites. The points that are made are very in depth but also kept relatively short, making every page really interesting and unique. Historical contexts usually make up around a quarter of each chapter, so when he builds onto the bigger context of the chapter, you get a much better and sympathetic understanding of FDR’s approach. Every chapter is also completely different from the last, so it covers the majority of different socio-economic factors of American society in the 20th century, factors that were accelerated by the Great Depression. This book is really, really, really good and I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you’re into American history, sociology, and politics.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book tying the New Deal to today

I enjoyed this book. It taught me some things I didn't know about the New Deal, and was interesting and engaging. It is a short read--if you want an in-depth history of the New Deal, look elsewhere--but it captured a lot of the idealism of the New Deal. It also did not shy away from failures of the New Deal, especially where indigenous people and people of color are concerned. Excellent read!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did the audiobook, narrow was solid. Man, we could really use something akin to the New Deal today...

Wish Biden had followed some more of its lessons and not screwed up the job. We got close in some respects, the IRA was a very good step, but being pathologically averse to trumpeting its effects was moronic.

[randy]

this is another fdr related book enjoyed reading. eric shows how important the new deal was and still impacting our lives. the new deal was not perfect and had to be reworked but what it accomplished out weighed its weaknesses.

[Rohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet - excellent introduction and framing of how the New Deal has shaped modern society. First time I've read about 1932, FDR and reconstruction. Will be picking up the other books in the series from Rauchway, and probably check out the Oliver Stone's Doc.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a history of the new deal per se, but more of a look at a couple of the major works (i.e., TVA) and institutional changes that emanated from them and rippled down to today.

[Nick Vantangoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a teacher of history, I found very little “new” here. If one has only an elementary knowledge of the topic, this may be a suitable book, but I could have skipped it and saved a few bucks.

[Joe Whitcomb · Rating 2 out of 5]

not well organized, not well written. good information and the authors passion shines through but for published history it was a slog.

[Loren Shultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. I thought a fairly good job in balance. Amazing how many underlying things haven't changed since the Hoover/Roosevelt days.

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was history extension reading. it is a v useful recap.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and balanced reminder of how the New Deal changed America.

[Sarah Krohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was so boring

[Charles Clow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow both too long and too short. Links between the historical and the modern weren’t always salient. Still, a decent primer.

[Jameson Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow!