New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Products for Sale — By Shopping Blogs on February 27, 2010 12:35 am
- ISBN13: 9781416592372
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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.
New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Popularity: 2%
Tags: burton w folsom, economic revitalization, new deal programs
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5 Comments
One star, only because zero is unavailable. More drugs for the “in denial” crowd. I read this book. I get the motivation for it. If you’ve spent years voting for and giving money to a failed cause (the giant Ponzi scheme that just collapsed from the deregulation championed by those of this political ilk, as well as that pesky matter of the war in Iraq — embarrassing issues for the people who championed those things), it’s very painful to admit error. So instead, back to the pen! Good job giving Faux News its latest talking points. Cherry picking the flaws of the New Deal is easy. Ignoring the obvious benefits of the New Deal in pursuit of an obvious political agenda makes the author a shill for the powers that WERE (thank God), as they frantically try to resurrect their party. Hard to do, when at this point even the most fervent rightwinger can’t ignore the fact that Republican policies plunged this country into an economic crisis. Let the market police itself, they know what they are doing! Drown the govt in the bathtub! And hey, these problems we’re having, it wasn’t us that caused them! It was Clinton! Hey let’s go further back, it was Roosevelt! Yes, that’s it! It was minorities getting loans, not the Wall Street bankers playing a Las Vegas game. The position they take seems to be, hey, we’ve been right all along, it’s just that Bush, well he, uh, he lost his way! The catastrophe on Wall Street? It’s the Democrat’s fault, see I can explain it right here, look what FDR did, his mistakes….. wow can’t wait to go count my money from the Heritage Foundation, and now I have a book tour, and all the people in denial about what they have wrought with their votes for an endless war in Iraq will come and see me, and buy my book, hurray! Anyway, the next generation will pay the price when the bill comes due, and the Chinese call in their loans. The greatest threat to our democracy of the modern age, ignored by these rightwing shills — the fact that the Chinese essentially own us at this point. We have been fools, we threw open the doors of the bank vault, championed by guys like this author, the money is gone. Yet, the right wing STILL can’t admit error. Nope, let’s go back and rewrite history. Astonishing the lengths people will go to, to justify their mistakes and errors in judgment. No solutions from the right, none of that. Sure, we’ll listen to the rightwing now, why now? They’ve done such a good job for our country, right? Good lord, how can anyone still believe that?
Rating: 1 / 5
Absurd, faith-based, capitalist propaganda. FDR and his policies were the savior of the American economy. Any attempt to paint it otherwise is absolute nonsense!!!
Rating: 1 / 5
This is Conservative revisionist history at it’s worst.
If you are one of Rush Limbaugh’s DittoBots or a worshiper of the Ayn Rand cult, this book is definitely for you. All of your preconceived notions will be reinforced and validated without any pesky things like “facts” or “reality” to get in the way of your Free-market Love Fest.
However, if you are a serious student of history or government policy, look elsewhere as this is not a scholarly work but rather a work of fiction designed to pander to an audience that prefers ideological orthodoxy to real historical inquiry.
Sadly, zero stars wasn’t an option, so it gets one.
Rating: 1 / 5
Google “Reviews Burton Folsom New Deal Raw Deal” and you’ll get hundreds of hits–almost all from conservative and ultra-conservative publications and sites. There is a reason and it’s not because of “left-wing” prejudice. Anyone, left right or center, who is familiar with the actual history of the New Deal will see this book for what it is: far-right economic ideology masquerading as historical scholarship. Of course the New Deal had mixed results, but the impact of the New Deal was far more complicated (and overall positive) than Folsom would have his readers believe. After the total corruption of government by the Bush administration and after the complete meltdown of our economy brought on by the very economic policies that Folsom and other conservatives celebrate, however, it is hard to take their analysis or their recommendations seriously.
Rating: 1 / 5
My father was in the CCC. His participation enabled him to send money home to keep his younger brothers and sisters in school. Their working lives, and those of thousands of others like them, ended the Great Depression. Roosevelt made it possible. Folsom doesn’t get it. The arguments of this book are those of a person who does not understand the depth of the struggles of the 1930s.
Rating: 1 / 5
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