I just finished reading Amity Shlaes “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression” and Folsom Burton’s “New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America.” Both were real eye-openers about Roosevelt and the damage he caused this nation. I had no idea how responsible Roosevelt was for the pure, unvarnished hatred of private enterprise and the roots of Marxism in the Democrat party.
The last chapter of “New Deal or Raw Deal?” is especially good because it examines the question of why media and the academy fell in love with Roosevelt and burnished his reputation posthumously.
It was interesting that around 1936 about 45% of US adults viewed Roosevelt as a “dictator.”
I highly recommend these books if you want to understand the origins of the pathologies in the Democrat party.
And yet look at his electoral results. Some of the largest victories ever--again and again.
Anyway, give Woodrow Wilson some credit. The DEMs were already “progressive” nutcases before FDR took over.
He was known as "The American Mussolini." Even among his admirers.
I was alive and well then. Never heard the word "dictator" ascribed to Roosevelt by anybody. I question that finding.
I'm not defending the man. He laid the groundwork for the "pump priming" that has escalated into the present nightmarish national deficit and debt. But dictator? Nah.
Burt’s a good friend, has written a great book, and he and his wife Anita have another one coming out on FDR in the war years. Should be good.
When my mom was house hunting years ago she refused to look at a listing on Roosevelt St!