History

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

Danno — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:01:59 GMT

measles:

I assume from your post that you are not short on literature from historians critical of the New Deal. I am currently in a graduate colloquium in which we are asked to find a biography of FDR and his administration to read and share with the class and I would love to find one that is critical, from as reputable a historian as possible. Any recommendations?

Amity Shales' aforementioned work, _The Forgotten Man_, is a fairly easy read, seems reasonably evenhanded, and is not terribly complimentary to FDR - that's what you're lookin' for?

Danno

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

Stranger — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:28:56 GMT

I've wondered if historians' overwhelmingly pro-socialism position is not a consequence of the work of an historian itself. What is there to speak of if history is made by millions of people marginally improving their lives? But if one strong leader orders things to change, now there's something to write about!

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

Chieftain1776 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:12:44 GMT

As noted above I simply did a search and read some reviews. Most of them I haven't read myself. Off the top of my head I can only think of Old Right contemporaries, John T Flynn and Garret Garett (Salvos Against the New Deal). They could be an interesting addition even with their bias. And some of their works are available on this website( Flynn and Garret). Amity Schlaes "The Forgotten Man" mentioned above. "FDR's Folly" is more economics oriented. On foreign policy Thomas Fleming's "The New Dealer's war". Also the relevant parts of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism.

A fruitful excercise is to go to a critical book's page on Amazon and look at the "Customers who bought this item also bought" portion and scroll through the results. Try it for Forgotten Man.

Or if that's not specific enough.... you could try emailing David Gordon and if you get a response I'm pretty darn sure it will be extensive.

Hope this helps.

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

measles — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:46:58 GMT

I assume from your post that you are not short on literature from historians critical of the New Deal. I am currently in a graduate colloquium in which we are asked to find a biography of FDR and his administration to read and share with the class and I would love to find one that is critical, from as reputable a historian as possible. Any recommendations?

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

BarleyLegal — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:52:13 GMT

I'm sure this wont be any help, but it might inspire you. Watching it, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh or cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Dzdc1H0wM&feature=rec-HM-r2

Re: Historians Supporting the New Deal

Chieftain1776 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:09:01 GMT

I don't have any expert knowledge but just performed a search myself out of curiosity. THE mainstream liberal historian (and revisionist imo) is Schlesinger. I haven't read "The Age of Roosevelt" series and they are a bit dated but your history professor will most likely salivate over your choice if your willing to do the reading. Unfortunately it's a series and each book is ridiculously long. Or apparently the President-elect is enjoying Jonathan Alter's "The Defining Moment" and "FDR" by Jean Edward Smith but both seem like biographies. I found this, The Great Depression: America 1929-1941 by Robert S. Mcelvaine, which may be just what you're looking for. If you read the 2nd review the reviewer says the author has a left wing bias and it's a social history. Its counterpart on the right is probably Amity Shlaes which I've heard is more of a social history than economic argument (she refers "FDR's Folly" for a more economic look on her website.

Hope this helps.

Historians Supporting the New Deal

Thedesolateone — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:17:32 GMT

I have to write a piece of coursework (nothing massive, as i'm still at school, just 2500-4000 words), and while I had intitially conceded to doing one on World War I and Germany's culpability (for easy marks) seeing as I no longer need an A, I have decided not to pander to examiners' simplistic "liberal"/socialist principles. Therefore, I have decided to write something on the Great Depression and the New Deal.

The problem is, in order to be allowed to write it on this topic, I must demonstrate that there is a level of historical and historiographical debate among historians, and in order to this, I must cover both sides of the debate. My question to the mises community; would you please inform me of any "decent" pro-New Deal historians?

I have been able to find numerous examples of excellent anti-New Deal literature (although the focus of this may sometimes stray into economics, rather than history, which may become a problem), either my searching abilities or poor, or there is a serious dearth of pro-New Deal stuff (even though most historians support the New Deal to a greater or lesser extent.

Thanks in advance for any help.