The Great Depression and New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) [Paperback]

The Oxford University Press publishes a series called "Very Short Introductions" written by authorities in their fields. The series helps to introduce busy and curious readers to a wide variety of subjects. The series numbers nearly 200 volumes and includes subjects from history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. This series constitutes an admirable way for any person to learn something about new matters and to expand his or her intellectual horizons.

Eric Rauchway's recent contribution to the series, "The Great Depression & the New Deal" (2008) offers, in 130 pages, a succinct, thoughtful overview of a pivotal and controversial period of American history. Rauchway is Professor of History at the University of California Davis. His books include ""Murdering McKinley: the Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America" and "Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America." In his "Very Short Introduction" to the Depression and New Deal, Rauchway makes no pretense of offering a complete or a definitive account. Instead, he offers "some basic ideas for a first understanding of this profound crisis and America's still-influential legislative response." (p.2) Rauchway includes a good bibliography "on the principle that you will go on from here if you wish to fully appreciate the period." For the briefness of its approach, Rauchway's book offers good insight into the Depression and New Deal.

In his opening chapter, Rauchway traces the origins of the Great Depression to the world-wide collapse of the economic order following WW I, with the tensions between the creditor nation, the United States, and the debt-laden rest of the world. He discusses the uncontrolled expansion of credit in the United States and the speculation-driven rise of the stock market. On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed and the Depression soon followed. Rauchway offers a good discussion on the relationship between the crash and the Depression.

Rauchway follows the onset of the Depression with a discussion of the steps the Hoover administration took in response. Rauchberg points out, contrary to some opinion, that Hoover took measures, particularly late in his administration, designed to get the Federal government involved in combatting the Depression. Rauchberg remains,however, highly critical of Hoover.

The bulk of this short book describes the pervasiveness of the Great Depression and the actions of both Roosevelt and Congress to both end the Depression and to try to correct structural deficiencies in the American economy to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again. Rauchberg thus divides New Deal programs into those designed to end the Depression and those designed to prevent another. He also tries to assess those programs which succeeded and those which failed. For a short book, he considers the interplay of Roosevelt's New Deal with the activities of Congress, the Supreme Court, State and local governments, businesses, and ordinary people. Rauchberg argues that as the New Deal progressed it moved to a system of strengthening outsiders to economic or political power as a means of combatting the Depression and as an alternative to statism.

Many people argue that the New Deal did not work to end the Depression. They point out that the economy exceeded its pre-1929 level only with the advent of war in 1940. Rauchberg acknowledges the crucial role of United States entry into WW II in stimulating the economy. But he argues as well that the New Deal was successful. He points out that the economy improved markedly in every year between 1932 and 1940, with the exception of a short recession in 1937. He gives Roosevelt and his programs a great deal of credit for the economic revivial and for making necessary changes which preserved the American way of life.

Rauchberg concludes that the New Deal was a collection of many different programs and ideas some of which conflicted with each other. The New Deal did not effect a radical change in American life but rather proceeded in a haphazard, improvisatory manner. Rauchberg concludes that "the openly experimental, obviously fallible, always compromised quality of the New Deal programs and their progeny reflected the imperfect democracy that gave them birth.... The New Deal's evident imperfection invited criticism and further tinkering, making way for improvements to the American democracy in the years afterward and yet to come."(p. 131)

Both the causes of the Great Depression and the remedies offered by the New Deal raise complex economic questions that cannot be fully described in a book of this brevity. Yet, Rauchberg has fulfilled his purpose of writing a good "very short introduction" which will encourage his readers to think further about the economic and social change wrought by the Depression and New Deal.

Robin Friedman

As a concise overview, this book is excellent. Rauchway covers the background of the Great Depression, its onset, and the major features of the New Deal in less than 130 pages of this small book. Rauchway presents the Great Depression as essentially a vicious downward economic cycle made possible by the destruction of the pre-WWI economic system, the nature of the postwar political/economic settlement, and American refusal to play the needed leadership role in postwar international affairs. This is followed by a concise description of the consequences of the depression and the inadequate response of the Hoover administration. Following the work of quite a few other historians, the New Deal is presented as a series of sometimes contradictory experiments to resuscitate the American economy, and in particular, maintain the major features of a capitalist economy. Rauchway in particularly good on the interaction, and sometimes synergy, between the economic and political goals of the successive Roosevelt administrations. Eventually, the New Deal would develop a 'countervailing power' strategy with significant regulation of the economy and use of Federal authority to empower individuals and interest groups who could oppose the power of business. With later success of the Roosevelt administrations in WWII, this approach became the basis of post-war liberal policy.
Rauchway is appropriately critical of the failings of the New Deal, some of which were unavoidable and hence inherent in the nature of the American political and social system. A important point that Rauchway omits is the background of many New Deal reforms, which were rooted in an earlier generation of Progressive era thought and reformism.
This book is written clearly and has an excellent bibliography.

The Great Depression and The New Deal is a new title from Oxford University Press in its terrific series of Very Small Introductions. This topic will draw considerable debate from those interested in the factional aspects of economic theory but the author (and I) leave that for the reader to judge for themselves.

Eric Rauchway is a Professor of History at the University of California, Davis and has done a remarkable job of putting together an interesting little book which, without pretending to present everything, covers this remarkable period with both old an new perspectives.

Starting with the end of The Great War, Rauchway goes into the boom time of the Roaring 20's and into the Wall St Crash of 1929. He points to excessive levels of cheap credit and high levels of debt as a major factor in the impact the Crash had on America, which parallels the present Global financial Crisis.

Efforts by the Hoover administration to contain the effects failed and by the time Roosevelt took office in 1933, unemployment stood at around 25%. With a clear mandate and a major crisis on his hands, Roosevelt and his crew acted swiftly and instituted a series of reforms to stabilise the problem in order that it could be acted upon. To do this he took on the banks and brokers in defiance of those who considered him a traitor to his class. Many would have seen it the other way around but it was a brave move anyway you look at it and it had to be done.

The book goes on to describe many of the programs such as the CCC and CWA which took on so many of America's unemployed. Purists will argue that this didn't solve any problems but that point of view fails to take into account the fact that these programs had three positive effects. Firstly, they helped to prevent the population from starving. Secondly, they prevented many people from turning to crime and thirdly, they built an enormous amount of infrastructure, ranging from dams to dog pounds.

Rauchway doesn't argue that these programs were without their shortcomings and illustrates how some were directly open to corruption but he does argue - and for what it's worth, I agree - that the US was better off for having them, even if they could only ever be temporary. Unemployment fell from 24% to 9% in five years, only spiking again for the 1938 recession. The truth of it is that the economy didn't recover until wartime production took up the slack and money started moving again.

Anyone who doubts how severe the conditions of the time were would do well to think of the small shanty towns which grew up around major cities as homeless people moved around looking for work. A quarter of the population was without support. People starved to death.

This is a great little book and as good an introduction to the subject as I can imagine.