FDR: Traitor to His Class? (8 of 10)

H. W. Brands, presidential historian and award winning author of a forthcoming biography of Franklin Roosevelt, speaks to a Grand Rapids audience about FDR's life and times.

The event was organized and co-hosted by the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

H. W. Brands is professor of history at the University of Texas in Austin. He is author of more than twenty books, including "TR: The Last Romantic" (1997), "The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin" (2000), "Woodrow Wilson" (2003), and "Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times" (2005). His latest work, "Traitor to His Class: The Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," is forthcoming on election day 2008.

His writing has received critical and popular acclaim; "The First American" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller. His essays and reviews have appeared in newspapers and journals all over the country. He is a regular guest on radio and television, and has participated in several historical documentary films.

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Education

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[afrothunder225x]

His point about the New Deal is nonsense. The only reason why the economy slipped in 1937 was because Congress forced FDR to start trimming back the New Deal programs. Until that point, GDP had increased steadily each year. Of course WWII was the ultimate factor that pulled the US out of the Depression. However, most economic historians agree that the US would have eventually gotten out of the Depression, just at a slower pace

[Devin1996]

He said almost as bad, and if you read his book or studied that era, you'd know that the US was hit with another wave that prolonged the depression even further in 1937-8.

[jpbalkenende]

This guy may know personalities but he does not know economics. The depression was as bad in 1938 as it was in 1933? The statistics certainly don't support this claim!