Synopses & Reviews
A sharply critical new look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency reveals government policies that hindered economic recovery from the Great Depression -- and are still hurting America today.
In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton W. Folsom exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity for political gain -- ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life.
Elected in 1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy. Many government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in the New Deal. Farm subsidies, minimum wage, and welfare, among others, all stifle economic growth -- encouraging decreased productivity and exacerbating unemployment.
Roosevelt's imperious approach to the presidency changed American politics forever, and as he manipulated public opinion, American citizens became unwitting accomplices to the stilted economic growth of the 1930s. More than sixty years after FDR died in office, we still struggle with the damaging repercussions of his legacy.
Review
"I have been proud to support research for this book." -- William F. Buckley, Jr.
Review
"History books and politicians in both parties sing the praises for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency and its measures to get America out of the Great Depression. What goes unappreciated is the fact that many of those measures exacerbated and extended the economic downturn of the 1930s. New Deal or Raw Deal? is a careful documentation and analysis of those measures that allows us to reach only one conclusion: While President Roosevelt was a great man in some respects, his economic policy was a disaster. What's worse is that public ignorance of those policy failures has lent support for similar policies in later years. Professor Burt Folsom has produced a highly readable book and has done a yeoman's job in exposing the New Deal." -- Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Synopsis
In this revisionist look at Franklin Roosevelt's presidency and the New Deal, historian Folsom sheds light on how government programs such as social security, minimum wage, and taxation, originally put in place in the 1930s, didn't work then to get America out of the Great Depression--and aren't working now.
About the Author
Burton W. Folsom, Jr. is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan. He is a regular columnist for The Freeman and has written several books, among them The Myth of the Robber Barons, as well as articles for The Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, Policy Review and Human Events. He is a former senior fellow at the Mackinac Centery for Public Policy and associate at the Free Enterprise Institute. He has appeared on television frequently, including Glenn Beck and other FOX shows. He lives in Hillsdale, Michigan. Anita Folsom has pursued a career in both politics and the teaching of history. She attended Mississippi State University for Women and completed two degrees at Murray State University in history. She has assisted with the editing of Burton Folsom's first book and several of his later manuscripts on economic history. Anita served as county chairman for the Reagan/Mitch McConnell campaigns in 1984, and she worked for U. S. Senator Mitch McConnell for two years after he was elected. Her publications include a book review of William Manchester’s The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 in Continuity and a biography of Andrew Mellon for the Encyclopedia of the American President. She currently blogs at BurtFolsom.com. She and her husband have one son, Adam.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Making of the Myth: FDR and the New Deal
Chapter 2 FDR's Rise to Power: Political Skill, Ambition, and Deception
Chapter 3 What Caused the Great Depression?
Chapter 4 The NRA: Why Price-Fixing Damaged American Business
Chapter 5 The AAA: How It Hurt Farming
Chapter 6 Relief and the WPA: Did They Really Help the Unemployed?
Chapter 7 More Public Programs That Fell Short: The Air Mail Act, FERA Camps, and TVA
Chapter 8 Financial Interference: Manipulation of Gold and Silver Markets, Tariffs, Stocks, and Banks
Chapter 9 Safety Net or Quagmire? Minimum Wage, Social Security, and Labor Relations
Chapter 10 No Free Ride: The Burden of Excise, Income, and Corporate Taxes
Chapter 11 The IRS: FDR's Personal Weapon
Chapter 12 Patronage Transformed: The Elections of 1934 and 1936
Chapter 13 FDR Stumbles: Court Packing, the Purge, and the Issue of Race
Chapter 14 How FDR's Deception Tarnished the Presidency Forever
Chapter 15 What FDR Should Have Done: Cut Spending, Tax Rates, and the Tariff
Chapter 16 What Finally Did End the Great Depression?
Chapter 17 Why Historians Have Missed the Mark
Chapter 18 The New Deal and Repercussions for Today's Economy
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index