A Commonwealth of Hope: The New Deal Response to Crisis

by Alan Lawson

Overview

Did the New Deal represent the true American way or was it an aberration that would last only until the old order could reassert itself? This original and thoughtful study tells the story of the New Deal, explains its origins, and assesses its legacy. Alan Lawson explores how the circumstances of the Great Depression and the distinctive leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt combined to bring about unprecedented economic and policy reform. Challenging conventional wisdom, he argues that the New Deal was not an improvised response to an unexpected crisis, but the realization of a unique opportunity to put into practice Roosevelt’s long-developed progressive thought.

Lawson focuses on where the impetus and plans for the New Deal originated, how Roosevelt and those closest to him sought to fashion a cooperative commonwealth, and what happened when the impulse for collective unity was thwarted. He describes the impact of the Great Depression on the prevailing system and traces the fortunes of several major social sectors as the drive to create a cohesive plan for reconstruction unfolded. He continues the story of these main sectors through the last half of the 1930s and traces their legacy down to the present as crucial challenges to the New Deal have arisen.

Drawing from a wide variety of scholarly texts, records of the Roosevelt administration, Depression-era newspapers and periodicals, and biographies and reflections of the New Dealers, Lawson offers a comprehensive conceptual base for a crucial aspect of American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801884061
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	07/24/2006
Series:	The American Moment
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.89(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alan Lawson is a professor emeritus of history and honors at Boston College.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword
Preface
Introduction
1. Prelude: The Fall of the American System
2. The Shaping of Franklin Roosevelt
3. Landslide
4. The Struggle for Financial Stability
5. The Recovery of Industry
6. Saving the Farms
7. Launching the Welfare State
8. Revival of the Spirit
9. Renewing the New Deal Lease
10. The Judicial Revolution
11. The Rendezvous with Destiny
12. The Common Man at the End of the Decade
13. The International Climax
Epilogue: Another Cycle?
Essay on Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The most refreshing, insightful, and extraordinarily well-written history of its kind in the last generation. Lawson’s work manifests a new view of the New Deal as representing that latest chapter in the reform tradition of what he terms ‘the cooperative commonwealth.’ His key interpretive points center on the cooperative commonwealth tradition, the significance of ideas, and the planned institutional response of the reformer and New Deal agencies.
—Patrick D. Reagan, Tennessee Technological University, author of Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943

Patrick D. Reagan

The most refreshing, insightful, and extraordinarily well-written history of its kind in the last generation. Lawson’s work manifests a new view of the New Deal as representing that latest chapter in the reform tradition of what he terms ‘the cooperative commonwealth.’ His key interpretive points center on the cooperative commonwealth tradition, the significance of ideas, and the planned institutional response of the reformer and New Deal agencies.

Editorial Reviews

Sparkling and engagingly written . . . Scholars interested in the histories of the New Deal, the federal government, and the Great Depression must read this provocative and elegant book.

Business History Review - Jason Scott Smith

Elegantly written contribution . . . Specialists in the period and in American political development will want to read and ponder it, and teachers in those fields might well consider it for class adoption.

Annals of Iowa - Ellis Hawley

Recommended.

Choice

A Commonwealth of Hope provides a highly readable and illuminating synthesis of some of the best scholarship on the New Deal.

Indiana Magazine of History - John F. Bauman

Recommended.
—Choice

Every so often a book comes along in the academic world that is truly refreshing in the sense that the author makes a good case for his ideas and does so without any political ideology or political correctness lurking in the background . . . A Commonwealth of Hope: The New Deal Response to Crisis, is one of those rare books.
—Michael V. Namorato, Journal of Economic History

Sparkling and engagingly written . . . Scholars interested in the histories of the New Deal, the federal government, and the Great Depression must read this provocative and elegant book.
—Jason Scott Smith, Business History Review

Optimistic, lively and exceptionally well-written synthesis.
—Daniel Scroop, Journal of American Studies

Elegantly written contribution . . . Specialists in the period and in American political development will want to read and ponder it, and teachers in those fields might well consider it for class adoption.
—Ellis Hawley, Annals of Iowa

An original and valuable contribution to New Deal literature.
—Maria Mazzenga, Enterprise and Society

A welcome addition to the literature on the New Deal. All academic libraries should acquire this book, and it is suitable for the general public as well.
—Richard E. Holl, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

A Commonwealth of Hope provides a highly readable and illuminating synthesis of some of the best scholarship on the New Deal.
—John F. Bauman, Indiana Magazine of History

From the Publisher

A welcome addition to the literature on the New Deal. All academic libraries should acquire this book, and it is suitable for the general public as well.

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society - Richard E. Holl

Optimistic, lively and exceptionally well-written synthesis.

Journal of American Studies - Daniel Scroop

An original and valuable contribution to New Deal literature.

Enterprise and Society - Maria Mazzenga

Every so often a book comes along in the academic world that is truly refreshing in the sense that the author makes a good case for his ideas and does so without any political ideology or political correctness lurking in the background . . . A Commonwealth of Hope: The New Deal Response to Crisis, is one of those rare books.

Journal of Economic History - Michael V. Namorato

A Commonwealth of Hope provides a highly readable and illuminating synthesis of some of the best scholarship on the New Deal.

— John F. Bauman

Indiana Magazine of History

A welcome addition to the literature on the New Deal. All academic libraries should acquire this book, and it is suitable for the general public as well.

— Richard E. Holl

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

An original and valuable contribution to New Deal literature.

— Maria Mazzenga

Enterprise and Society

Elegantly written contribution... Specialists in the period and in American political development will want to read and ponder it, and teachers in those fields might well consider it for class adoption.

— Ellis Hawley

Annals of Iowa

Optimistic, lively and exceptionally well-written synthesis.

— Daniel Scroop

Journal of American Studies

Sparkling and engagingly written... Scholars interested in the histories of the New Deal, the federal government, and the Great Depression must read this provocative and elegant book.

— Jason Scott Smith

Business History Review

Every so often a book comes along in the academic world that is truly refreshing in the sense that the author makes a good case for his ideas and does so without any political ideology or political correctness lurking in the background... A Commonwealth of Hope: The New Deal Response to Crisis, is one of those rare books.

— Michael V. Namorato

Journal of Economic History