“True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition,” he continued. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men,” Roosevelt said in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933. “he rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. The book was one of three finalists for this year’s Pulitzer Prize and earned a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.Īfter carrying 42 of the country’s then 48 states, Roosevelt declared the Great Depression a national emergency and distinguished himself from his predecessor Herbert Hoover and the Republicans who, since the 1920s, had left economic recovery to the private sector, believing the business cycle would eventually bring the depression to a close. Brands explains in Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Doubleday, 2008). Roosevelt, who was reared on Hudson Valley privilege, was quickly becoming the people’s candidate, willing to fight for the underprivileged and challenge the status quo, historian H.W. “I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. “Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth,” Roosevelt said when he accepted the Democratic party’s nomination. Across the country, millions were homeless, farms were failing, industrial production was declining, and banks had shut their doors. In 1932, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigned for the United States presidency, the country was in the darkest days of its deepest depression. Brands reviews president’s command performance, popular appeal and Depression-era policies

Traitor to His Class by H.W. Brands