Week of March 13, Wednesday Lecture

On Monday, I discussed Hoover's failures to respond to the depression. I suggested
that it was not a question of do-nothing government, not a question of laissez-faire, but
rather a question of Hoover's ideology. Indeed, I spent a lot of time on Hoover
because I believe that he epitomizes the limitations that traditional American ideals
placed on the ability of Americans to respond to the Depression. Hoover's
determination to limit government intervention in the economy to voluntarism and his
fear that an active government threatened individual liberty fatally handicapped his
reaction to the Depression.

I. American Values And The Depression

II. The Challenge

• Stop The Spiral
• Provide Relief
• Spur Recovery

III. Industrial Policy: The N.R.A.

• Blue NRA Eagle
  IMAGE: The Blue Eagle
• Hugh Johnson
• Stability Not Recovery
• Schechter Vs. NRA
• Little NRAs

IV. Agriculture

• The Crisis
• What Alternatives Are There to Solving The Farm Crisis?

1. Widen Market
2. Increase Prices
IMAGE: Farmer Plowing Up His Crop

• Who Benefitted??? Who Is Left Out?
  IMAGE: Sharecropper Left Behind by the New Deal
• The Problem of Tenancy
  IMAGE: Farm Tenant
  IMAGE: Migrant Worker During the Depression
• What About Consumers?

V. Welfare And Government Spending

• Relief and Public Works Alleviate Suffering
  IMAGE: The Civilian Conservation Corps At Work
  IMAGE: A Civil Works Administration Project
  IMAGE: Wisconsin ERA Project
  IMAGE: TVA Dam
• Political Support for FDR
• Spending Promoted Recovery
• Keynsian Economics
• The Value of Welfare
  IMAGE: Relief Line
• The Limits Put Upon it

VI. The Modern Federal Government

A. Dominance of Federal Government Over State And Local

B. New Role For President

C. Vast Executive Bureaucracy

D. Broker State

VII. Pluralism and its Limits

return to Depression and Response

created: February 10, 2000
last updated: February 23, 2000

Copyright 2000, Mark Kornbluh