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1. A Caring Society: The New Deal,
2. The New Deal and the Great Depression
$17.95
3. Climbing Out of the Great Depression:
 
4. A caring society; the New Deal,
 
5. Climbing Out of the Great Depression:
$99.95
6. New Day/New Deal: A Bibliography
 
$26.44
7. Great Depression and the New Deal
$32.00
8. The New Deal: America's Response
$49.79
9. The Great Depression and the New
$24.00
10. The New Deal: Pulling America
$51.95
11. The Great Depression and the New
$6.24
12. The Politically Incorrect Guide
13. The Great Depression And The New
 
$12.50
14. In the Eye of the Great Depression:
 
$45.16
15. The Great Depression and the New
 
$14.95
16. The Great Depression and the New
$8.40
17. FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and
 
18. Women and Minorities during the
$45.00
19. Great Depression and New Deal:
$7.35
20. The Forgotten Man: A New History

1. A Caring Society: The New Deal, the Worker, and the Great Depression : A History of the American Worker 1933-1941
by Irving Bernstein
 Hardcover: 338 Pages (1985-06)
list price: US$22.95 -- used & new: US$9.99
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Asin: 0395331161
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2. The New Deal and the Great Depression in American History
by Lisa A. Wroble
Library Binding: 128 Pages (2002-09)
list price: US$26.60
Isbn: 0766014215
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Examines the history of the Great Depression and details the New Deal programs designed to bring relief to the American people and the economy, highlighting the role of President Franklin Roosevelt and showing the impact of his policies on ordinary poeple. ... Read more


3. Climbing Out of the Great Depression: The New Deal (American History Through Primary Sources)
by Sean Stewart Price
Library Binding: 32 Pages (2008-09-01)
list price: US$29.00 -- used & new: US$17.95
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Asin: 1410931129
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When the stock market crashed, Americans were in trouble. Jobs were very hard to find. Many people lost their homes and had no choice but to live in shacks. The newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt had a lot of work to do! He came up with a series of

... Read more


4. A caring society; the New Deal, the worker, and the great depression. A history of the American worker, 1933-1941.
by Irving Bernstein
 Paperback: Pages (1985)

Asin: B003NXVENI
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5. Climbing Out of the Great Depression: The New Deal (American History Through Primary Sources)
by Sean Price
 Hardcover: Pages (2008-01-01)

Asin: B001WANYGE
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6. New Day/New Deal: A Bibliography of the Great American Depression, 1929-1941 (Bibliographies and Indexes in American History)
Hardcover: 315 Pages (1988-06-03)
list price: US$99.95 -- used & new: US$99.95
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Asin: 0313260273
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The most extensive bibliography of the depression era ever published, this volume lists retrospective books, articles, and doctoral dissertations that deal with American government, law, politics, economics, regional and local affairs, society, thought and culture, and foreign relations during this tumultuous period of modern American history. More than 4600 individual items are included, reflecting the considerable and ongoing interest in the era evinced by scholars and nonacademics alike. Coverage is limited to works published in English. Organized topically, the bibliography covers forty-four separate subject categories ranging from participant accounts to trade and economic relations. Each section is further subdivided into lists of books, articles, and dissertations. Within sections, entries are arranged alphabetically by author. An author index provides additional access to the items, designating the topical categories in which works by an author appear and the type of works included. ... Read more


7. Great Depression and the New Deal (Milestones in American History)
by Ronald a Reis
 Library Binding: Pages (2011-04)
list price: US$35.00 -- used & new: US$26.44
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Asin: 1604137665
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8. The New Deal: America's Response to the Great Depression (Problems in American History)
by Ronald Edsforth
Paperback: 336 Pages (2000-04-14)
list price: US$41.95 -- used & new: US$32.00
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Asin: 1577181433
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In this concise and lively volume, Ronald Edsforth presents a fresh synthesis of the most critical years in twentieth-century American history. The book describes the collapse of American capitalism in the early 1930s, and the subsequent remaking of the US economy during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. It is written for a new generation of readers for whom the Great Depression is a distant historical event. ... Read more


9. The Great Depression and the New Deal Thematic Encyclopedia [2 volumes]
Hardcover: 792 Pages (2009-12-18)
list price: US$180.00 -- used & new: US$49.79
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Asin: 1598841548
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In two volumes, The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia captures the full scope of a defining era of American history. Like no other available reference, it offers a comprehensive portrait of the nation from the Crash of 1929 to the onset of World War II, exploring the impact of the Depression and the New Deal on all aspects of American life.

The book features hundreds of alphabetically organized entries in sections focusing on economics, politics, social ramifications, the arts, and ethnic issues. With an extraordinary range of primary sources integrated throughout , The Great Depression and the New Deal is the new cornerstone resource on a historic moment that is casting a shadow on our own unsettled times.

... Read more

10. The New Deal: Pulling America Out of the Great Depression (The American Saga)
by R. Conrad Stein
Library Binding: 128 Pages (2006-05)
list price: US$31.93 -- used & new: US$24.00
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Asin: 0766025705
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11. The Great Depression and the New Deal (Greenwood Press Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century)
by Robert F. Himmelberg
Hardcover: 224 Pages (2000-11-30)
list price: US$51.95 -- used & new: US$51.95
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Asin: 0313299072
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This essential guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal provides a wealth of information, analysis, biographical profiles, primary documents and current resources that will help students to understand this pivotal era in American history. The author, an expert on this age of U.S. history and politics, brings to life the traumatic period that began in 1929 and ended only with America's entrance into World War II in 1941. He carefully explains the causes of the Depression, the actions taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt to lift America out of its economic morass, and the economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of the age. ... Read more


12. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (The Politically Incorrect Guides)
by Robert Murphy
Paperback: 272 Pages (2009-03-31)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$6.24
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Asin: 1596980966
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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In this timely new P.I. Guide, Murphy reveals the stark truth: free market failure didn't cause the Great Depression and the New Deal didn't cure it. Shattering myths and politically correct lies, he tells why World War II didn t help the economy or get us out of the Great Depression; why it took FDR to make the Depression Great; and why Herbert Hoover was more like Obama and less like Bush than the liberal media would have you believe. Free-market believers and capitalists everywhere should have this on their bookshelf and in their briefcases. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

5-0 out of 5 stars Murphy vs Krugman
Recently Murphy has offered to debate Paul Krugman, the world's leading Keynesian. So far Mr Krugman has not accepted the challenge and if he is wise he never will. One of the enduring myths Krugman has propagated is that we just didn't spend quite enough and that's why the Great Depression lasted so long. He goes further and blames those darn Republicans for not allowing FDR to continue his free spending ways. Well, let's look at the Congressional makeup of those years to see if this indeed could have been the case.

All Democrat majorities... Senate and House

1933-35 59-36 313-117
1935-37 69-25 322-103
1937-39 75-17 333-89
1939-41 69-23 262-169

As you can see at no time did Republicans have any sort of control. In fact during this entire period the Senate had filibuster proof Democrat majorities (remember there were only 96 Senators then) and that even after an historic 80 seat pickup in the House they still were still in a puny minority that was less than it is even now.
So one has to conclude Mr Krugman is ignorant or a liar. You can draw your own conclusions. The fact that he continues to harp about that Hoover was a laissez-faire capitalist despite indisputable evidence to the contrary would make the choice easier in my mind. Krugman apparently is one in a growing of Nobel Prize winners that are richly undeserving of that award that the Nobel commitee seems more and more bent on handing out prizes to uber-left progressives regardless of what they have or have not accomplished.

1-0 out of 5 stars 700 Billion Dollar Bank Bailout Says YOU are an IDIOT
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R24RNTDM5HHODX What do I have to say about this book? NO!! That is what I say - NO, NO, NO.

3-0 out of 5 stars Not A Good Primer, But Fairly Interesting
Unlike many reviewers, I didn't really have much in the way of preconceptions when picking up this book; I am not from the US, and I have only the most basic knowledge about the Depression and the New Deal.

I think this book should not be the first one you pick up on the subject. Clearly (as per the series, 'Politically Incorrect Guides') this book seeks to challenge commonly held views. The 'do-nothing Hoover' and 'FDR the saviour' canards are challeged. However, I wish I had read a bit more 'orthodox' history on the Depression before reading this, so at least I would be familiar with what the author is arguing against. That being said, I learned some valuable economic history from it.

And look, I don't know enough about economics to have an informed viewpoint - that's why I read this book - but I was a little disturbed by the authors' unblinking faith in small-government-lassez-faire-free-market capitalism. It's almost evangelical. I couldn't tell you if he's right or not. I do feel the subject would have benefited from a more balanced treatment.

5-0 out of 5 stars If You Want to Learn Lessons for Today then Read this
This book answers one question that I always wanted to know. Why did the Depression last so long and why was unemployment 20%+ so high. Hoover along with large industrialists agreed to keep wages high because high wages (under the consumption theory) would allow workers to consume more and thus support the economy.

Sure high tariffs and high taxes were devastating to the economy of the 1930s or any time thereafter, but the faulty theory of consumption exposed in this book is beyond common sense.

As wages were held high (by unions or "cooperation" with Hoover and Roosevelt) while prices of goods and production inputs fell, then profits collapsed and investment declined. Based on supply and demand unemployment rose.If the price of something (real wages of labor) rises then people will demand less of it. If you had a job during the depression, you were in good straits since your wages stayed high while what you bought dropped in price. The cost was borne by the millions of unemployed. Why does a politician support minimum wage laws? Why not advocate wages at $million dollars a day? We will all be rich!

Think of it: consumption doesn't drive the economy; production does. One only produces something to ultimately consume it or trade it for something else to consume. To increase production then you need to increase capital investment and to do that you need people to postpone consumption enough to save.

Hoover, Roosevelt, Bush and Obama AND Bernake have it ass backwards. At least after reading this book, you will know better.

God Help us.

3-0 out of 5 stars America Acts or Euro Axis
Reality fails to intrude upon Murphy's ideology.Thus, in arguing against government intervention to bail out troubled firms, he writes: "From an economist's point of view it is far better to let those businesses liquidate, freeing capital to find better, more profitable uses, which will in turn provide jobs that actually produce real value..."(p. 174)But what if that "freed" capital moves abroad, abandons workers here, and hires less expensive laborers elsewhere?

And during WWII Murphy assures us, "...the government did not need to impose direct rationing...Instead, the government could have simply raised taxes..."(159)During a major war, people want to believe that everyone must sacrifice.If every young man can be a possible casualty, then everyone on the home front should be willing to cut down on sugar, butter, etc.To raise taxes so that the rich could still afford sugar while the poor could not, would cause enormous resentment in the home of a poor mother whose son had been killed.Indeed, not only was rationing imposed, but in Britain and the US metal pots and pans were collected to help the war effort (though most proved useless as material, but a stimulant to morale).

Additionally, about war Murphy quotes Ludwig von Mises - "There is no record of a socialist nation which defeated a capitalist nation.In spite of their much glorified war socialism, the Germans were defeated in both World Wars."(159)But did Germany lose because of its socialism?In WWI, Germany and a few other nations held off the rest of the world - for years.And again in WWII, Germany was a nation with far, far fewer people than the combined British, French, Dutch, Belgian, Soviet, and American (remember the Philippines, etc.) empires.Nevertheless, Germany fought the enemies' allied strength for several years before succumbing.Furthermore, socialist Germany lost most precipitously not to the capitalist West, but to the Communist east.Germany's diplomacy may have failed that nation, but Germany's socialism may have been one reason it could fight against such overwhelming odds for so long.

How does Murphy explain the stock market crash of 1929?"The most persuasive explanation...blames the Federal Reserve...particularly in 1927, the Fed pumped artificial credit into the loan market..."I was not persuaded by the material Murphy presents that the American Federal Reserve, seeking to aid Britain with its drain of gold reserves, inflated the US dollar in 1927 and thus caused the crash and the depression.

Murphy does present thought-provoking expositions of how deflation can be good for the economy, how the gold standard provided stability, how Franklin Roosevelt's agricultural policy destroyed good food while Americans cried for meals, how FDR's National Industrial Recovery Act would imprison a small businessman who dared to lower his prices so as to compete with major corporations, and how FDR used the Works Progress Administration to hire men for projects in areas where Democrats needed votes.In all these areas, Murphy's book is a healthy antidote to the more common FDR hagiography taught in universities.Unfortunately, Murphy's discussion of social security is as muddled as many of today's election TV ads on the subject.

Murphy shocked me with his statistics on bank failures: thousand of banks failed in the US in the 1930s while in Canada "'10 banks with 3.000-odd branches...did not even experience any runs.'"(126, Murhpy is quoting M. Friedman and A. Schwartz)Murphy also displays an intriguing table of the unemployment rates in the US and Canada during the depression, but Murphy fails to explore the causes of the differential rates.(103)

The plowing under of pigs and corn, as required by FDR's Agricultural Adjustment Act is far preferable to Stalin's plowing under of Kulaks in the Ukraine, but there were negative consequences to FDR's program.First, one is amazed at the absurdity and horror of destroying good food while some Americans starved.But cotton too was destroyed as part of the program.People clothed in rags could cheer Roosevelt while his Administration destroyed cotton to keep prices high.And when the government gave to the planters the money to destroy and not plant cotton, the planters then had no reason to employ share croppers.The planter's land areas were the ones not to be planted; the croppers' field abandoned.So many croppers, Black and white, were forced off the lands they had worked for decades.

But the South was not the only area undergoing transformation of the land.A severe drought in much of the country forced others off the land.Okies and Arkies and others migrated from states of baked earth to heavenly dreams in California, and the grapes of wrath and hope.Murphy condemns the political antics of the Works Progress Administration, and he could have added the PWA and the many other FDR agencies.Yet, such agencies employed young men to help the land, planting trees, building dams, and in parks building pavilions, roads.As a youth in the late 1940s and 50's I could appreciate the shady pavilions in the city park with its WPA sign to remind us of who had built the structures.The next generation could enjoy the fruits of the labor that had been employed by FDR's agencies.The government sector hired the unemployed for constructive purposes on government lands.What is wrong with that?Not only did it provide jobs for youths in the desperation of the Depression, the result was better roads, parks, dams, irrigation, trees, for future generations.

Murphy condemns President Hoover for asking businessmen not to lower wages during the Depression.(33)Murphy rightly sees a continuity between the programs of Hoover and FDR.He blames both for extending the Depression and making it the Great Depression.Implicitly, Murphy seems to have wanted lower wages, more firings, and then the depression might have ended faster.Government intervention made things worse, is his argument.And though he writes little about it here, Murphy is probably no fan of the growth of high-wage demanding unions, which grew enormously in the 1930s under Roosevelt.

Murphy does not mention the 1931 collapse of the KreditAnstalt Bank in Austria, which some say tumbled more glittering dominos into greater depression.The fall of this bank led Austria, Germany, and Britain to abandon the gold standard.Hoover believed the economic crisis was world-wide, and the causes came from abroad.Other nations had to deal with the crisis too.How did they do?

Some in the US thought the Soviet approach had been proven correct by the crash of 1929. Some Americans of Finnish descent returned to the Soviet Union - to disastrous results.Eventually Stalin had all the men killed, and the women lived on, in the usual Soviet poverty.Some American Blacks visited and a few stayed.Paul Robeson's son remained there for several years.But overall, the Soviets dealt with the Depression as it had dealt with the economy of the 1920s, with ever growing terror.In 1934 the Soviets adopted a new constitution, but it was a sham face on the terror state.Millions were killed through Stalin's policies; millions more were imprisoned in gulags that provided slave labor in the worker's paradise.

Coming to power about the same time as FDR, in early 1933 Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany.A National Socialist, he surely believed in government intervention.Jews were less than 1% of the population, and though they suffered from discrimination from the first months of his regime, the rest of the population began to think the economy was getting better.Hitler terminated the WWI reparations that had done so much to wreck the German economy (not until autumn 2010 did Chancellor Angel Merkel finally finish paying off the WWI German war reparations!)In the early years of Hitler's regime, many believed that his government was solving problems of depression.It was government intervention, it was anti-Jewish, it was a dictatorship, but in the 1930s, few were killed in concentration camps - certainly nowhere near the numbers killed and incarcerated in Stalin's USSR.The people of the Saar freely voted to rejoin Hitler's Reich.Sudetenlanders sought to rejoin - and thus the Munich crisis.Danzig wanted to rejoin.Certainly, one reason so many wanted to rejoin the Reich, was because they, nearby, believed Hitler's Reich was an economic success.What were the unemployment statistics for Germany?

America, the Communist Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany - these were the three major alternatives to solving the depression in the 1930s.The Soviet terror and murder state had greater appeal the further away one was from it.But Nazi fascism did seem to solve the depression in a land where unemployment in 1932 had been higher than in the US.The 1936 Olympic Games spotlighted Germany as a prosperous, growing, confident nation, one that might be a model for the future of Europe or even the world.

If FDR had refused to use the government to help form unions, build roads, dams, parks, if Roosevelt had told the unemployed that their wages might be lowered or they might be fired (all for the best of the economy), if FDR had abided by laissez-faire policies, would things have gone as well as Murphy implies?Or might Americans have turned to a different model? ... Read more


13. The Great Depression And The New Deal (Defining Moments)
by Kevin Hillstrom
Hardcover: 226 Pages (2008-11-07)
list price: US$55.00
Isbn: 078081049X
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14. In the Eye of the Great Depression: New Deal Reporters and the Agony of the American People
by John F. Bauman
 Paperback: 230 Pages (1988-11)
list price: US$12.50 -- used & new: US$12.50
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Asin: 0875805418
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15. The Great Depression and the New Deal: America's Economic Collapse and Recovery (Twentieth Century American History Series)
by Anne E. Schraff
 Library Binding: 111 Pages (1990-10)
list price: US$20.50 -- used & new: US$45.16
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Asin: 053110964X
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Discusses the devastating effect of the 1929 stock market crash on American economy and Franklin D. Roosevelt's programs to restore the nation's financial health. ... Read more


16. The Great Depression and the New Deal: Legislative Acts in Their Entirety (1932-1933 and Statistical Economic Data)
by Frederick E. Hosen
 Library Binding: 328 Pages (1992-09)
list price: US$75.00 -- used & new: US$14.95
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Asin: 0899506674
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17. FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
by Jim Powell
Paperback: 352 Pages (2004-09-28)
list price: US$14.95 -- used & new: US$8.40
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Asin: 140005477X
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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“Admirers of FDR credit his New Deal with restoring the American economy after the disastrous contraction of 1929—33. Truth to tell–as Powell demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt–the New Deal hampered recovery from the contraction, prolonged and added to unemployment, and set the stage for ever more intrusive and costly government. Powell’s analysis is thoroughly documented, relying on an impressive variety of popular and academic literature both contemporary and historical.”
Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate, Hoover Institution

“There is a critical and often forgotten difference between disaster and tragedy. Disasters happen to us all, no matter what we do. Tragedies are brought upon ourselves by hubris. The Depression of the 1930s would have been a brief disaster if it hadn’t been for the national tragedy of the New Deal. Jim Powell has proven this.”
P.J. O’Rourke, author of Parliament of Whores and Eat the Rich

“The material laid out in this book desperately needs to be available to a much wider audience than the ranks of professional economists and economic historians, if policy confusion similar to the New Deal is to be avoided in the future.”
James M. Buchanan, Nobel Laureate, George Mason University

“I found Jim Powell’s book fascinating. I think he has written an important story, one that definitely needs telling.”
Thomas Fleming, author of The New Dealers’ War

“Jim Powell is one tough-minded historian, willing to let the chips fall where they may. That’s a rare quality these days, hence more valuable than ever. He lets the history do the talking.”
–David Landes, Professor of History Emeritus, Harvard University

“Jim Powell draws together voluminous economic research on the effects of all of Roosevelt’s major policies. Along the way, Powell gives fascinating thumbnail sketches of the major players. The result is a devastating indictment, compellingly told. Those who think that government intervention helped get the U.S. economy out of the depression should read this book.”
David R. Henderson, editor of The Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics and author of The Joy of Freedom


The Great Depression and the New Deal. For generations, the collective American consciousness has believed that the former ruined the country and the latter saved it. Endless praise has been heaped upon President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for masterfully reining in the Depression’s destructive effects and propping up the
country on his New Deal platform. In fact, FDR has achieved mythical status in American history and is considered to be, along with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of all time. But would the Great Depression have been so catastrophic had the New Deal never been implemented?

In FDR’s Folly, historian Jim Powell argues that it was in fact the New Deal itself, with its shortsighted programs, that deepened the Great Depression, swelled the federal government, and prevented the country from turning around quickly. You’ll discover in alarming detail how FDR’s federal programs hurt America more than helped it, with effects we still feel today, including:

• How Social Security actually increased unemployment
• How higher taxes undermined good businesses
• How new labor laws threw people out of work
• And much more

This groundbreaking book pulls back the shroud of awe and the cloak of time enveloping FDR to prove convincingly how flawed his economic policies actually were, despite his good intentions and the astounding intellect of his circle of advisers. In today’s turbulent domestic and global environment, eerily similar to that of the 1930s, it’s more important than ever before to uncover and understand the truth of our history, lest we be doomed to repeat it.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (94)

4-0 out of 5 stars High quality, anti-FDR polemic
Most people now accept that Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal did not really cure the Great Depression of the 1930s.Most people now know that the Depression continued until World War Two.Despite this, I think most people retain a basically positive outlook on FDR.Most people think that he was an idealist, who tried very hard.Most people look back with gratitude upon the leader who gave us Social Security, federal banking deposit insurance, the Securities & Exchange Commission and so forth.

If this is your perspective, Jim Powell wants to change it.FDR did not merely fail to cure the Depression, Powell argues.On the contrary, FDR's policies were so affirmatively wrong-headed that they deepened and prolonged the Depression.FDR, in Powell's view, was no damm good.He tried to destroy the free market.He waged class war against the rich.He focused on nothing but politics.If FDR did anything right, Powell does not get around to mentioning it. (The little matter of being the President who defeated Hitler is beyond the scope of this book, which focuses only on pre-World War Two economic issues.)

Speaking for myself, I am not persuaded that ALL of FDR's ideas stunk.While one can criticize the details, I do think that Social Security, the FDIC and the SEC were pretty good ideas.I think Glass-Steagal was a valuable law.I think that a substantial amount of what FDR did was valuable and worthwhile.

But, I am persuaded by Powell's general thesis.There is no question that FDR did not cure the Depression.And, as I look at the details of FDR policies such as the NRA and the AAA, I think it is beyond serious question that much of what FDR did made the problem worse.To put it in a nutshell, FDR understood absolutely nothing about how a free market works. Many of his policies interfered with the free market in a stupid and destructive manner, which made the downturn far worse than it needed to be.

If these ideas are new to you, or you disagree, you need to read this book.Powell is one-sided.Powell is not fair to FDR. But, in the end, Powell is basically correct.

5-0 out of 5 stars Deja vu!
I bought this book to understand the context of what our politicians are doing today. Same old story - same bad ending! Why do we/they never learn?

3-0 out of 5 stars Just ok
No big revelations here.If you've read Milton Friedman and Henry Hazlitt, you already know this information.This makes a nice twofer with the book "Silent Cal" -- read them back-to-back for an interesting contrast.

The tragedy is reading this book in the context of 2010 -- how many of these policies have been resurrected.So now we'll do it all over again.They still dismiss us as simplistic for defending individual liberty and property rights.They still sneer at us for reminding them that the federal government has no source of income apart from taxing the output of its citizens.

I would have given the book 4 stars, except for one aggravating factor:the inclusion of irrelevant physical descriptions of all the New Dealers.Honestly, you expect the next one to be Cuffy Meigs, Eugene Lawson or Kip Chalmers.I don't need to know that someone had a strong chin before I know that he advocated flawed policies.Stay serious.

Well footnoted, and good to keep on your bookshelf, but it doesn't add much that is new.

5-0 out of 5 stars What they don't teach in school...
Standard textbooks present FDR as one the nation's best presidents and that his New Deal pulled the country out of the Great Depression. Not true, says Jim Powell in this eye-opening book. Not only did the New Deal fail miserably in alleviating economic distress, it helped contribute to why the Great Depression lasted so long. With the endorsements of two Nobel Laureates in Economics, Powell's book presents the hard empirical data on what New Deal policies actually achieved. Not only were there numerous failures (employment remaining in double-digits throughout the 1930s being one of them), the federal government engaged in pure political chicanery (channeling more government relief money to potential swing states in the West instead of the poorest in the South to ensure FDR's reelection) as well as behavior that was truly outrageous (paying farmers to destroy their crops and livestock while the American people starved in order to raise prices).

I certainly will be recommending this book to one my friends in the campus Democrats. Hopefully, she'll throw away her "FDR is My Homeboy" t-shirt when she's finished.

4-0 out of 5 stars Tremendous look at the economic effects of New Deal
This book was an eye opening look at the actual economic effects of the New Deal.I had read in my high school history text that FDR pulled the economy from the depths of the Great Depression, and that was the lasting image in my mind.After studying economics in college and law school I was shocked to see what his actual policies were.It appears the current administration is taking many of the same plays that FDR did, though FDR basically told Congress what to do and they did it (not so today).FDR was a great politician, but he was a terrible economist and this book puts a convincing argument that FDR kept the US in the depression for a lot longer than it needed to be.

My only complaint was that some of the detail seemed superficial - especially the long-term effects of the new deal.Some chapters seemed very detailed and great, but some seemed to just scratch the surface.It is still a valuable read, and I plan to read more of the history of this very important era. ... Read more


18. Women and Minorities during the Great Depression (Great Depression and the New Deal, Vol 6)
 Hardcover: 349 Pages (1990-02-01)
list price: US$45.00
Isbn: 0824008987
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19. Great Depression and New Deal: Almanac (U-X-L Great Depression and New Deal Reference Library)
by Allison McNeill
Hardcover: 368 Pages (2002-11-15)
list price: US$79.00 -- used & new: US$45.00
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0787665339
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Editorial Review

Product Description
A comprehensive overview of the Spanish-American War, including biographies and full or excerpted memoirs, speeches, and other source documents. ... Read more


20. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
by Amity Shlaes
Paperback: 512 Pages (2008-06-01)
list price: US$15.99 -- used & new: US$7.35
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Asin: 0060936428
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Product Description

In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. She traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers and the moving stories of individual citizens who through their brave perseverance helped establish the steadfast character we recognize as American today.

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Customer Reviews (338)

2-0 out of 5 stars Painful
The text is too scattered with characters and hard to follow. There is a painful tedium to reading it and it's unclear what the author is really getting at. Is she trying to show that the reforms made by FDR were overstepping the government's bounds, or that they were not enough? She quotes Keynes more than once as saying FDR should either intervene in taking over the industries entirely or else step back from them and that FDR was too middle ground. (I've heard the same repeated by American Econ Professors-- that the interventions just were not big enough.) Is she repeating this because she agreed with Keynes?

1-0 out of 5 stars One of the worst books I've ever read all the way through
This is possibly the worst book I've ever read all the way through.Poorly argued, poorly written, poorly sourced.Sloppy.Laughable.Error-ridden.The title figure of the "Forgotten Man" is a moving target through the book so that by the end you're not sure who she even considers the "forgotten man."It's subtitled a "new history" but she never really spells out what's "new" about it, not once making reference to most historians' "take" on the New Deal and how her view is different.She shouldn't even call it a "history" - more like her personal musings.If her main point is that the New Deal didn't work that well and that we would've been better off under Coolidge and Mellon, I think Robert Bartley and the Wall Street Journal were making THAT point back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so there's nothing "new" about that.She builds her story around unlikely heroes, victims, and characters of the time.She admires Calvin Coolidge, mostly for his ability to do nothing.She admires Justice James McReynolds one of the least-admirable justices in the Court's history; she fails to note the irony of the notoriously anti-Semitic McReynolds questioning the Schechter brothers on their kosher poultry business.She worships Wendell Willkie.Felix Frankfurter is the evil eminence-grise lurking behind the scenes pulling the strings controlling those naughty bookish intellectuals who want to turn the US into a Stalinist nirvana. She spends needless time on the forgotten figure of Father Divine, why I don't know.She completely underestimates the psychological value of FDR's leadership during the Depression.Her writing style is off-putting, feeling the need to give us the names of every steamship anyone mentioned in the book ever used to travel to Europe or back - perhaps she figured it would give this otherwise poorly sourced book an air of verisimilitude.She purposelessly notes coincidences of geography or states of birth of personages she's talking about, in ways such as "They had radically different economic philosophies even though they both lived in Massachusetts."She talks of American business leaders meeting in early 1940 trying to stop war in Europe from breaking out - sorry guys, too late!I could go on, but the whole thing is just awful.Can't believe I read through the whole thing.Do yourself a favor and don't do as I did.

5-0 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Man
The book arrived promptly and in very good condition, actually better than the seller advertised. I will buy again from this seller if the opportunity arises.

4-0 out of 5 stars Buy the book
Great analysis of the depression era that dispells the mythology.Unfortunately, the narrator does a poor job; spoken in a monotone that makes it hard to follow.

One of the challenges is that there are so many historical figures introduced that, from chapter to chapter over the arc of the discussion, it is hard to keep track of each of them and their roles, especially if you have to read/listen in short portions over more than 2 weeks.

5-0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
I am a history major, so expected this to be a bit dry and fact based.No, it reads like a suspense novel.Shlaes captures the social and political issues, and winds them into the economic situation.What is disturbing is to see a repeat of many of the mistakes being made today, but in fast-forward speed!
Read this in two nights and loved it. ... Read more


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