The American People in the Great Depression

The American People in the Great Depression



The American People in the Great Depression

In her recent book, The Forgotten Man, conservative columnist Amity Shales argues that Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal did nothing to solve the problems caused by the Great Depression. In fact, she says, “from 1929 to 1940 government intervention helped to make the Depression Great.”(Philip, 2008) Kennedy's challenge was to construct a book that had breadth and depth, fully comprehended political, military, economic, and social developments, and integrated a wealth of specialized scholarship. He also sought to fit all these pieces into a driving narrative that would pull a reader along. In Freedom from Fear, he has pulled off this remarkable feat. Hoover, the Depression, Roosevelt, the New Deal, and the transformation of American industry and society all seem fresh and fascinating again. Kennedy occasionally seems off-target in appraising American grand strategy in World War II; having not attempted an international history, he may have understated the American case in the arguments about the Second Front and the relative contributions to victory. These and other issues anyone can quibble with, but many readers should enjoy the nonpartisan, informed, and thoughtful judgments of a historian working at the height of his craft, conveying the great challenges and choices of "the greatest generation" to the present one. Kennedy considers that this drive for security, both domestic and international, characterized the Roosevelt Ian response and hoped to secure for the American people one of the main “four freedoms.” He highlights the New Deal's shortcomings, contradictions and failures and teases out the variety of determinants in American World War II strategy. Context is emphasized and the author attempts to give a feel of the times in which the specific events took place. Although this volume's focus is firmly on the American experience it does also consider the other side, as it were, whether that be the Republicans, the British, the Soviets, the Japanese or the Germans. (Philip, 2008)

It is a true that this book's main achievement is the way in which it weaves seamlessly through the various aspects that shaped the American experience in these two pivotal decades. With a lightness of touch, particularly in the first half of this volume, Kennedy deals with the full gamut of life. The written style is sophisticated yet accessible for undergraduates and above. As reader, you are carried at pace ...