New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Great book about FDR and the Great Depression

It took reading this book to make me realize how little I knew about the Great Depression. I also realized how wrong my thinking was about what caused the Great Depression and why it lasted so long. This book should be required reading in high school.

10 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

Actually government spending was the right thing to do. Lots of it.

Idyllic??

The good feelings for F.D.R. were based on the real suffering he alleviated.

It is easy for the armchair economist, who has plenty to eat and a warm place to sleep, to suggest a hands off approach to solving the depression era downturn.

The problem is the length of time that approach might take would have meant prolonged suffering to those at the bottom of the income brackets. Many who were elderly and children.

People were going hungry and suffering during the depression. And the federal programs created by F.D.R. helped alleviate it. Hence F.D.R.'s reelection.

There is no perfect system, but the lesser of two evils is the approach which was used. And used correctly. However imperfect.

The fact is, massive government spending during WWII, helped lift the United States out of its depression era.

So F.D.R. was not guilty by failure of ideology, but by scope. The problem with F.D.R. was not that he spent, but that he spent too little until WWII.

Government spending was the solution.
It was not perfect, but it solved the problem.

Fiscal austerity sounds great as long as you're not the one in the breadline.

9 out of 40 people found this review helpful.

Revealing

I read this for a book club last month. It was great. Although the author is plainly biased in his views, he does give credit where credit is due, to Roosevelt, and certainly backs up with fact everything he writes about. This is a well researched book revealing Roosevelt's economic recovery plans for what they were--criminal and wrong. It also provides an in-depth look at a man that has been revered for too long, and for all the wrong reasons. The author does a great job of revealing what really went on during FDR's administration and how economically crippling it was back then, but more importantly, in my view, how crippling it will be today if the same course is followed.

It provided for good discussion during our book club as everyone had different insights. It also provided good discussion, debate, and insight on our current economic situation.

7 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Sets the record straight!

One of the best discussions of the New Deal to date. Finally, someone has burst the bubble the progressives (liberals), academia, & the media created regarding FDR & the new deal.

This should be required reading in the government sponsored public school systems!

6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Informative

The book clearly outlines how bad economic decision-making and party-first politics extended the length of the Great Depression. There are many vaulalbe lessons for today's politicians. If we can learn from our past then maybe we can avoid making the same mistakes and another depression. History and economics show that a country can't spend its way out of a recession. Money taken away from the private sector and businesses is money taken away from a quick recovery. Individuals and businesses are what drive the economy, and Burton Folsom provides a clear and accurate picture of how our government and politics held our country back and damaged the fabric of our nation.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Outstanding Book

EVERYONE should read this book!!!

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Interesting and Instructive

It is good that FDR's tensure is coming under critical rather than adoring review.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Very Enlightening

I was familiar with much of the information offered in this book, but it did offer some new, and very enlightening, information that I had not previously known. I think it would be good for the U.S. if more Americans would read this book, especially now. I highly recommend it to everyone.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Insightful!

I read this book a few years ago and found the book quite interesting about how government intervention, although well-intended, can be quite destructive to an economy, a nation, and its people. This book is well worth the read. It will give the average reader insight into the policies of FDR during the Great Depression. Some of these policies still remain today, namely Social Security. This should be a wake-up call given the circumstances today. Government spending seems like a good idea for those who are sitting on the sidelines eager for an economic turnaround as a result of government spending,"the 870 billion stimulus". However, as was the case, the government stimulus failed to energize the economy. Reading Folsom, only reminds the reader, that well intended government spending that is not properly directed at the engine of economic develop falls short and is often wasted, as was seen with the latest stimulus. I am looking forward to the next book by Folsom, FDR Goes to War.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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