The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal

By: Robert P. Murphy Ph.D.

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

In this timely new P. I. Guide, Murphy reveals the stark truth: free market failure didn't cause the Great Depression, and the New Deal didn't cure it. Shattering myths and politically correct lies, he tells why World War II didn't help the economy or get us out of the Great Depression; why it took FDR to make the Depression "Great"; and why Herbert Hoover was more like Obama and less like Bush than the liberal media would have you believe.

Free-market believers and capitalists everywhere should listen to this.

Listen to more Politically Incorrect Guides.

©2009 Robert Murphy (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The winner writes history

I am always interested in books that challenge the norm or show the other side of what we read in history at school. I am not saying that RM is right, just that I like hearing the other side.

It is scary to hear how much Bush and Hoover are alike and how much Obama and Roosevelt are alike. How close the policies of each of these presidents mirror each other.

We are reminded that this was a global depression and that other countries who did not have spend spend policies got out of it a lot faster then we did. We are also reminded that we had depressions in the past that averaged only two years, mostly because we did not try to correct the problem through government.

It is very hard for the US to do nothing when faced with a problem. This attitude of do something no matter what is what usually gets us into trouble.

In the Intro we are told we are only going to get facts. I felt we got lots of unsupported opinions with are facts. At times the author talked over my head and at times I never could figure out his reasoning.

true history

I always love it when an author writes something that is actually true.

FDR's Great Deal was a disaster and it caused a disaster, however most history books in the USA flip the story around backwards to make FDR seem like a genius and a hero.

Robert Murphy sets the record straight in this "Politically Incorrect" guide.

John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"

Good summary of real causes of "Great Depression"

I listened FDR's Folly which along with several other works by Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and others is often quoted in this book. This book is a good recap of those interspersed with commentary and additional facts supplied by the author. The narration is excellent. The pacing is good and it's easy to follow each chapter. In K-12, most peoples sole exposure to the subject, the textbooks are full of misinformation about the causes and resolution of the extended downturn. This book is a great starting point for finding out what really took place.

Politically Biased

I expected to hear it was all the liberals faults but yikes! Nothing new here, you could just listen to talk radio and get the same information and bias.

Politically biased agenda, a great disappointment

Poorly researched, agenda driven with cherry picked "Facts" so obviously slanted that it should be placed in the comedy section, not history. Unfortunately it would be almost as bad in that category.

How come they didn't teach this at college?!

If you could sum up The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal in three words, what would they be?

Factual, compelling and illuminating.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The description of the Federal Reserve system.

What does Tom Weiner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His interest is evident. His tone kept otherwise dry material interesting.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I'm disturbed by the successful process politicians and media distorting and hiding the truth.

Hooray for Coolidge but Presidents since no good

The headline should be the real title of this book. While Hoover & FDR certainly both made mistakes during their presidency in regards to the great Depression, if you were to follow this author's policies, we would:
1) Still should have child labor at work
2) 80 hour work weeks
3) No OSHA or workman's comp
4) No Social Security programs
5) No labor unions or collective bargaining
6) No checks and balances on stock trading, banking, or business.

Only thing I agree with this author is tariffs are bad for countries in general.

In short, not an America I want to live in. Basically just a Libertarian world view.

Scary

Where does The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

I think it is scary that all of that brilliant analysis by the greatest minds in history and economics still cannot even come to a basic decision as to what went wrong in the great Depression and what solutions if any worked. How could we possibly know today when we are right in the middle of it. Did the Tarp and the stimulus work or would it have all panned out being left alone?

What does Tom Weiner bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

I would never have just sat down and read such a heavy book but in audio form it was easier to get into and understand the flow. In just one year with Audible.com I have listened to 10 times more books than I read in previous years.

If you could give The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal a new subtitle, what would it be?

Myths surrounding the New Deal and what really happened to the economy in the 30's.

Bashes 2008 recovery before it even gets rolling!

Seems clearly anti-government in the first 20 mins with no regard for the fact that the 2008 recovery was one of the longest sustained periods of growth following one of the most dramatic market downturns in years. It would be understandable if the 08 recovery backfired but clearly it didn't?

Well worth your monthly credit

People will try and slam it and call it libertarian propaganda and they're only trying to obfuscate the real issues being addressed in the book.
It is as intellectually rigorous as an audiobook can get, not enough sources but that'll be balanced by the rhetoric. An improvement would be an in depth cause and effect of each bureaucracy and law that FDR implemented to bottleneck the economy, that would be voluminous but definitive in the case against him and large government. A good book to prime you for Hayek or Mises.

good, but does not lend it so well to audio (imho)

Good book, well done Mr. Murophy (&narrator) but I do feel I'd have remembered more by reading it with my eyes instead of my ears. Inevitably a book about economics (& history) will haveva lotvof figures, dates etc.