From a reader:

Jonah, Your comment on the Blue Eagle prompted me to check what John Garraty said about the origins of the New Deal. In his standard college textbook, the late distinguished liberal historian wrote that the National Industrial Recovery Act “was also similar to experiments being carried out by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy and by the Nazis in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. It did not, of course, turn America into a fascist state, but it did herald an increasing concentration of economic power in the hands of interest groups, both industrialists’ organizations and labor unions.” Really enjoyed the book.

Me: This reminds me how remiss I’ve been in never publishing my bibliographic essay (largely because it’s a bear to write). Garraty’s essay “The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression” in the American Historical Review, was immensely useful for me. It’s available on JSTOR for those with access. I would say that article and William Leuchtenberg’s essay “The New Deal and the Analog of War” were arguably the two most useful things I read on the New Deal and it’s similarities to fascist efforts. Obviously, my conclusions are different from theirs.