The title essay alone reveals the importance of this book. It was written in 1932 as a thrashing assault on the Hoover administration for its big spending, tax regulating, and inflating program that the author said would make the depression worse. Now, this is notable for many reasons, and not only because he was exactly right. What is striking is how his account overturns the usual line about Hoover, namely that he was a laissez-faire president who didn’t use government to solve the depression. Garrett’s essay alone is enough to prove that he was the first New Dealer and that FDR was merely following up bad policy with worse policy.
The essay was not obscure. It was hugely prominent and important. It has not appeared until this fantastic volume of writings by Garrett, as edited by Bruce Ramsey.
Garrett was a brilliant novelist and fantastic fighter against the rise of fascism in America in the 1930s. He hammered both the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations in article after article in the nation’s most prominent periodical, the Saturday Evening Post. It drove the New Dealers completely bonkers. And when you read his work, you can see why.
Garet Garrett (1878–1954) was an American journalist and author who was noted for his critiques of the New Deal and US involvement in the Second World War.
