False Dawn

"A new history of the New Deal's economic recovery efforts-and why they failed to delivery on their promises. FDR's New Deal policies have long enjoyed a special place in the history of American policy and society-not just because many of them lastingly redefined the Federal government's fundamental responsibilities, but because New Dealer's willingness to engage in what Roosevelt called "bold experimentation" represented a type of policymaking that many observers would like to see more of. In False Dawn, economist George Selgin offers a counterweight to such laudatory thinking about the New Deal. Famously, Roosevelt's goals for his administration were relief, recovery, and reform. Selgin weaves decades of economic research to show that, although the New Deal helped set the stage for a speedy recovery, crucial parts of its rescue program failed to live up to their promise. Until World War II intervened, over fifteen percent of American workers were still either unemployed or on work relief, and much of the recovery that took place until then occurred despite rather than because of New Deal policies. "The thing about bold experiments," Selgin observes, "is that they often fail." Selgin's goal isn't to blow up a favorite chapter in progressive history, but to sort out the New Deal's successes from its failures, with the aim of making sure the right lessons are drawn from the Great Depression experience for dealing with future recessions. It is, Selgin says, only by carefully considering each New Deal recovery experiment, together with other developments that either aided or interfered with economic recovery, that we can know "which [New Deal] programs...to ever consider reviving-and which ones to avoid like the plague.""--