Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies Toward Small Business, 1936-1961

Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln both considered small business the backbone of American democracy and free enterprise. In Beyond the Broker State, Jonathan Bean considers the impact of this ideology on American politics from the Great Depression to the creation of the Small Business Administration during the Eisenhower administration. Bean’s analysis of public policy toward small business during this period challenges the long-accepted definition of politics as the interplay of organiz...