The latest volume of the Oxford History of the United States, an
exhaustive survey spanning 16 years of crises, ordeals, fears, and
insecurities. Kennedy (History/Stanford Univ.; Over Here: The First
World War and American Society, 1980) writes of post-WWI
disillusionment, the collapse of farm prices that had been driven
higher by the war, and the great movement of rural people to the
cities. President Hoover, the laissez-faire whipping boy of the
Great Depression, emerges here as a well-intentioned workaholic who
tried valiantly with many plans and experiments, despite some
faulty philosophy, to bring his country out of the economic free
fall that resulted from the effects of the Treaty of Versailles
(huge and ruinous war reparations imposed on Germany, record
tariffs that severely damaged international trade), a gold standard
that restricted the money supply, and an unregulated, speculative
stock market that fed on excess credit and caused widespread bank
failures and massive unemployment. Kennedy describes the great fear
paralyzing the country when FDR came to power. The flood of New
Deal legislation attempted to use the government to build social
and economic security for its citizens. It didn't end the
Depression, but it did create permanent monuments in American life,
including Social Security, unemployment insurance, and banking and
stock market reforms. Full economic recovery followed the US
entrance into WWII, from which a newly prosperous, confident
America emerged, despite the loss of more than 400,000 lives. The
author does well in selecting salient events and colorful,
representative details to illuminate this critical period in the
American Century. A major achievement in objective historical
writing that should be a legacy to generations of students seeking
authoritative reference material on the period. (Kirkus Reviews)
Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. Freedom from Fear tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities.
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