The Crisis of the Old Order
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Buy on AmazonThis book, first in a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy, describes the conditions (economic, socio-political, etc.) that led to the Great Depression & the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Schlesinger takes a multi-disciplinary approach to his topic, examining this period period via the major actors who played a part in shaping it, as well as the emerging trends that such persons represented. As the "old order" succumbed to the turbulence & change that characterized the 20th Century, Schlesinger does a masterful job describing its decline.
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"This is another one that was written by a fan. Schlesinger was convinced that the New Deal saved American capitalism, and he wanted to tell the story. Schlesinger was probably the best storyteller among the great historians of the mid-20th century. He had an eye for detail and a telling anecdote. He could make a point without beating readers over the head with it. He also had a really good sense of politics. His Age of Roosevelt is much more than a biography; it’s really a story of FDR’s political milieu. Schlesinger crafted paragraph-long portraits of people that are quite memorable and that captured their essence. If you want to know about the major political figures of the time, Schlesinger is the first place to look. In part because it’s unfinished. Schlesinger only gets the reader up to about midway through Roosevelt’s first term. A lot of people, for a long time, thought that Schlesinger was going to come back and complete it, but he got distracted when he was offered a position in the Kennedy administration, and he never returned to Roosevelt."
American Presidents · fivebooks.com