Recently, I read an excellent book by Burton Folsom titled New Deal or Raw Deal. This book analyzes Roosevelt's New Deal policies and highlights how economically and socially destructive they really were. The reason this book is so great is, for one, because it is an easy read that anyone can understand. Two, and more importantly, it covers Roosevelt's childhood and helps try to explain where his liberal philosophy originated and explain why it was wrong. For me this book couldn't have come to my attention at a better time. I first found out about this book right before my history class (With a very liberal teacher) began learning about Roosevelt and the New Deal Era. By reading this book before class I was able to avoid being brainwashed by my teacher into thinking that Roosevelt was the best president ever and that his New Deal was actually a success. Unfortunately, not to my surprise, the rest of my class was brainwashed. This is not so relevant now, but when you understand that the reigns of the nation will be in these same kid's hands in the near future it can be very disconcerting. On a better note I'm planning on using this book, with its incredible source of factual information, to write my history term paper about the new deal. I guess we can just say that this paper will be my pay back!
