Reviews for Patterns of political economy in America

The average rating for Patterns of political economy in America based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-16 00:00:00 Kerry Jeinz Rosenof’s much more recent book (“Economics in the Long Run: New Deal Theorists and Their Legacies) is significantly better and should be read in place of this one (Patterns of Political Economy in America: The Failure to Develop a Democratic Left Synthesis 1933-1950). The goal of this study was to show how the success of the structural versus fiscal policy approaches was affected by their overton window. It mostly fails. The only evidence of the political discourse is select quotations from the usual suspects (Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Rex Tugwell, Ezekiel Mordecai). The only direct quote references to the supposed totalitarian vs libertarian overton shift in the 1930s-40s are in the last 40 pages. There is no effort at bringing broader qualitative evidence. The highly interesting and demonstrative case studies (in the operation of the NRA, the AAA, the 1945-1946 UAW strike) are breezed by in around 10 pages. Thus, the book is highly repetitive and could be condensed with no losses to a 30-50 page article. The history of economic thought framework used in Rosenof’s more recent book is the superior approach. Since neither work covers organizations and mass movements, that book over and above shows how much more relevant it is to see the “failure at a sythesis” as a Means-Hansen analytical synthesis thru Keynes than some kind of liberal-socialist ideological sythesis. endnote: It feels like this book was cranked out in a rush right before the due date, from its shallow discussion down to the note at the top of the bibliography that says it “not a full bibliography and you can call me if you really want to see something”. lol

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-09 00:00:00 Eve Collins I absolutely loved this book and it is a surprisingly quick but informative read. It is a compilation of subjects that Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote upon that focused on government and economy during the beginning of the Great Depression. This is a great read because it allows readers to get inside the head of one of our most influential presidents. They get to read what he thought in his own words. This book is not just about the past. It is relevant today because of the deep recession that America and some parts of the world are in. I would recommend this to everyone but especially to people who are particularly interested in Franklin D. Roosevelt and what his opinions really were on various aspects of government and economy.