New Deal Historian

The Coming of the New Deal, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Houghton Mifflin, $6.75) naturally begins, continues and ends as a biographical study of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The personal nature of this narrative (which is the second volume of Schlesinger’s The Age of Roosevelt) also extends to all the minor characters in the opening two years of the New Deal. Here is written the comprehensive product of an amazingly detailed reading of books, articles and newspaper accounts about the New Dealers.

Admiration for the patient energy and research of Schlesinger the historian is mingled with appreciation of the care with which he endeavored to be fair in his reporting despite the obvious bias of Schlesinger the idealist for idealistic—even though socialistic—persons and projects. Indeed it appears that Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. agrees with a common assumption that all political progressives of the twentieth century must be socializers.

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About the Author

Donald R. Richberg

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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The Coming of the New Deal, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Houghton Mifflin, $6.75) naturally begins, continues and ends as a biographical study of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The personal nature of this narrative (which is the second volume of Schlesinger’s The Age of Roosevelt) also extends to all the minor characters in the opening two years of the New Deal. Here is written the comprehensive product of an amazingly detailed reading of books, articles and newspaper accounts about the New Dealers.

Admiration for the patient energy and research of Schlesinger the historian is mingled with appreciation of the care with which he endeavored to be fair in his reporting despite the obvious bias of Schlesinger the idealist for idealistic—even though socialistic—persons and projects. Indeed it appears that Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. agrees with a common assumption that all political progressives of the twentieth century must be socializers.