When Government Helped

"In this book we have a rich portrait of the policies and programs of the New Deal with special attention directed to their relevance to present conditions in the U.S. The editors and contributors bring a wide range of expertise on the issues facing our country both then and now. The book is essential reading for all concerned citizens." --Franklin D. Roosevelt III, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Sarah Lawrence College "In an age when government intervention in the economy has become passé, Sheila Collins' and Trudy Goldberg's When Government Helped comes as a welcome breath of fresh air. This remarkable collection of essays shows us that capitalism flourishes best when it is properly regulated and managed in such a way as to promote the common good of all. The best case yet of the necessity for the American citizen to turn to what Franklin Roosevelt called 'the organized power of government.'" --David B. Woolner, PhD, Senior Fellow and Hyde Park Resident Historian of the Roosevelt Institute, and co-editor of FDR and the Environment "This is a wonderfully comprehensive analysis of the New Deal's responses to the Great Depression and the lessons learned from them in our current Great Recession. The authors offer point-by-point comparisons of the responses of Presidents Roosevelt and Obama to their respective crises. This is no hagiography; the authors are as clear-eyed and unsparing in their assessments of the limitations and failures of New Deal policies as they are on Obama's lost opportunities to understand their possibilities and successes. But those successes were manifold and enduring and there is still time to learn." --Robert D. Leighninger, Jr. PhD, Visiting Scholar, Living New Deal Project, Geography Department, University of California at Berkeley; and author of Long-Range Public Development: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal "Professors Collins and Goldberg propose the publication of an anthology that compares the circumstances and policy responses to the New Deal and our current `Great Recession.' "Tightly focused on the distinctive features of each period, this anthology emphasizes the successes and failures of government programs, with an eye to determining what might work in the future." --Joel Blau, DSW, Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work "The book has two major strengths that distinguish it from others already on the market. The first is its interdisciplinary breadth, and the second is its effort to draw on the historical lessons learned in the New Deal era for forward-looking proposals that might meet the challenges we face today. The book's second strength, its announced goal of assessing the lessons that the New Deal policy response brought us and using them to develop responses to the current economic crisis, might supply an alternative frame for the book." --Marion Crain, Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law, Washington University St. Louis, Missouri "Overall, the quality of work that can be expected from these contributors is very high. The wide ranging topics and interdisciplinary team are excellent. In my view, the pillars for subject matter in the 1930s are banking laws and finance, public service employment, and enactment of Social Security-and each of these is addressed. Chapter 7 on Democratization of Culture is an important and uncommon contribution, and environmental lessons in Chapter 8 are very welcome. In my view, the book can become an important contribution. As noted above, my guidance would be lean a bit more toward applied policy. Yes, I would purchase and read with great interest. If teaching a relevant course, I would use this book as a text for the theme of active policy innovation." --Michael Sherraden, Director, Center for Social Development, George Warren Brown School of Social Work "When Government Helped is vital reading for anyone interested in thinking about alternatives to the constricted vision of government responses to high unemployment that characterizes the current era. It tells the story of the New Deal, a wide variety of innovative programs developed in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Going beyond the usual lesson of the importance of deficit spending, the essays in this timely volume explore their successes and failures, and draw critically important lesson for today." --Nancy E. Rose, PhD, Professor Emerita of Economics, California State University, San Bernardino "When Government Helped is a revelatory collection of essays. It sheds light on how the New Deal order was put together, how it transformed American public life, and where it failed to go far enough. Even more exciting these essays are written in light of the recent near collapse of our economy and draw valuable lessons from the past about how to deal with our present dilemma." --Steve Fraser, Co-Editor, The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order "The wide-ranging topics and interdisciplinary team are excellent...This book is an important contribution." --Michael Sherraden, PhD, Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and Director, Center for Social Development, Washington University in Saint Louis "Tightly focused on the distinctive features of each period, this anthology emphasizes the successes and failures of government programs, with an eye to determining what might work in the future. The scholarship is sound and comprehensive. When Government Helped is well-conceptualized, timely, and I'd certainly recommend it." --Joel Blau, DSW, Professor of Social Policy, Director of the PhD Program, Stony Brook School of Social Welfare "When Government Helped has two major strengths that distinguish it from others already on the market. The first is its interdisciplinary breadth, and the second is its effort to draw on the historical lessons learned in the New Deal era for forward-looking proposals that meet the challenges we face today. This book's interdisciplinary lens fosters creative perspectives, which yield new and exciting directions for reform." --Marion Crain, JD, Vice Provost, Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work and Social Capital, Washington University Law "When Government Helped is vital reading for anyone interested in thinking about alternatives to the constricted vision of government responses to high unemployment that characterizes the current era. It tells the story of the New Deal, a wide variety of innovative programs developed in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Going beyond the usual lesson of the importance of deficit spending, the essays in this timely volume explore their successes and failures, and draw critically important lesson for today." --Nancy E. Rose, PhD, Professor Emerita of Economics, California State University, San Bernardino "When Government Helped is a revelatory collection of essays. It sheds light on how the New Deal order was put together, how it transformed American public life, and where it failed to go far enough. Even more exciting these essays are written in light of the recent near collapse of our economy and draw valuable lessons from the past about how to deal with our present dilemma." --Steve Fraser Co-Editor, The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order "When Government Helped, a near encyclopedic account of New Deal responses to the Great Depression, reminded me that the financial crash coincided with a manmade environmental crisis. This even handed and well written book describes, among many things, the enlightened environmental thinking of the time starting with the President himself. I had no idea that from 1911 to 1917, country gentleman Franklin D. Roosevelt kept a farm journal about the land around Hyde Park. When Government Helped evaluates the failures and successes as the U.S. government sought to return eroded soil and other natural resources to what we would now call 'sustainability.' Whatever your pet solution to the rich world's current economic stagnation, you will find precursor New Deal experiments lucidly described and evaluated in When Government Helped." --Barbara Garson, author of All the Livelong Day and most recently Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live "This is a terrific book that compares Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression with Obama's handling of the Great Recession in 10 different areas. The authors do an excellent job of providing the different political and economic contexts and assessing possibilities and limitations, strengths and weaknesses of each." -Robert Leighninger, "The path to progressive change that would lead to good jobs and improve the lot of the poor and middle class in our country faces great obstacles: globalization, an anti-government ideology, disappearing unions, deindustrialization, the pension crisis, deficit hysteria, as well as rising inequality and the resulting weakening of our democratic institutions. But, as the contributors to When Government Helped argue, the record of the New Deal offers a framework for change." --Gregory N. Heires, The New Crossroads "[A] wonderfully comprehensive analysis of the New Deal's responses to the Great Depression and the responses of the Obama Administration to The Great Recession... It offers detailed comparisons of the two administrations on banking, jobs, agriculture, the environment, labor, social movements, welfare, culture, and general political economy." --Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare