New Deal or Raw Deal?

How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

By: Burton Folsom Jr.

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton Folsom, Jr., 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.

©2009 Burton Folson, Jr. (P)2009 Tantor

Franklin Roosevelt did THAT!

When I started listening to the introduction to this book, I thought that it would soon become only the second Audible book that I could not complete. The person reading had that sneering, sarcastic voice usually reserved for attack ads in political campaigns. Here comes an ideological attack on Roosevelt.

What I was looking for was a balanced view of the effect of the New Deal on the Great Depression. Great American presidents most of the time quickly become mythical. No one is perfect and can please everyone in his or her life. A minor example: most people in the country think that Lincoln freed all the slaves when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Nope. Just the slaves in the Confederate states. It was politically expedient.

I have heard that FDR was a great president. Certainly a great war leader. But, taking over the country in 1933 in the midst of a terrible depression, what was being said about his "New Deal" projects enacted to fight the depression.

Folsom was so upset, it seemed to me, that the New Deal programs were being taught as a successful way In which Roosevelt eventually pulled the country out of the depression. What I was taught in the late 60s was that Roosevelt's upbeat personality and calm Sunday radio addresses (call "Fireside Chats") had immediately raised the morale of the American people. His New Deal policies effectively raised taxes and used the proceeds to pay unemployed Americans to build public works as well as many minor positions and, in the case of farmers, to not grow crops to keep the prices up.

I were clearly taught that the Good Deal, for all its positives, did not end the Great Depression. This was pretty obvious, really, since the unemployment rate was about as high in 1939 as it had been in 1933. The end was due to the onset of WWII. The US became grand arms seller to the world and everyone had to go to work to produce armaments as quickly as possible. Perhaps they are taught now, in a more "progressive" time for the media, that the New Deal did help economic recovery, without the factor of the war.

Folsom, as I mentioned, was more balanced that I expected. He laid the blame for the recession solely at the foot of Roosevelt's predecessor, Herbert Hoover. He attacked the New Deal policies first as economically unsound because they took money from individuals and corporations, where the money could have been used to expand the company and hire more workers, and turned the funds over to state and local governments, where they often just created make-work jobs directed by vast patronage. Elections were decided by whom got the federal millions. As much as I was supposed to be enraged by the political corruption, at my age I would have been foolish not to expect it. The existence of the New Deal programs might have been the wrong strategy for ending the depression, But the corrupt way in which the programs were run probably were not a factor in their failure. And some good things came out of the New Deal public projects, such as highways, bridges, and schools, when they were well built.

The second thrust of criticism did surprise me. According to this account, Roosevelt himself was in the thick of fighting his political enemies who opposed the programs in which he had so invested himself. Roosevelt was the first president to send the IRS on multi-year audits of his enemies, such as Hearst. He succeeded in sending one of his enemies to prison for three years. He made political appearances for his allies and tried to sabotage the elections of his enemies. He was not only unfaithful to this wife Eleanor, but he would ridicule her in public, counting on the media to not report his words.

There are other accusations. If even half of them were confirmed, it would change my opinion of Roosevelt. As a product of the American aristocracy, I always assumed that, whatever else he might be, he was a man of great integrity. I never envisioned him rolling in the mud with Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

Read This Book!

I advise anyone studying the great depression to take a look at this book. It is an excellent read destroying the narrative of the oh so great FDR! I heard about this book from Bob Murphy’s The Politically Incorrect Guide To The Great Depression and The New Deal another read I would advise!

Clear Facts on politics and economics

Where does New Deal or Raw Deal? rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top five historical accounts of the new deal.

What other book might you compare New Deal or Raw Deal? to and why?

The forgotten man

Any additional comments?

Burton Folsom is a gift to us.Clear critical thinking, great analysis and backed up by the participants own words actions and wonderfully documented.

Too late now

If you are into reading history to find something in the details that might be useful today, skip this book. Weaves a webbery so thick that you need to flowchart the characters and events. Interesting if you like the focus of that era but otherwise time can be better spent with another entertainment device. Filled with hypothetical analysis, it can leave the average reader lost in thought, thought outside of the book...only for the true New Deal historian...you'll thank me later

Biased book: Not about New Deal. Just against FDR

Don't get fooled by the title. This is not a book about the New Deal, or about how FDR's economic policies hurt America: it is a book 100% against FDR. I bought this audiobook because I wanted to have some background on the New Deal economic programs. I am not American and I don't have a political affiliation (even less with democrats or republicans in America), but my feeling is that the objective of this book is just to destroy FDR. The book does indeed provide data and facts about how the new deal damaged America, but it is also full of non-related stuff that has no reason to be there. For instance, I don't really care if FDR was not good at sports when he was young, or if he cheated on his wife: such stuff has nothing to do about the economic effects of the New Deal. I have no doubt that many of the New Deal programs hurt America's economy (I studied the effects of the NIRA when I was getting my PhD in economics), but IMHO, this book is way too biased.