I liked his book on railroads, but the thesis that "Each abandoned what we now call "free market capitalism" sounds like a riff on Karl Polanyi.
On Sun, Oct 29, 2006 at 08:45:35AM -0800, Jim Devine wrote: > Of course, Schivelbusch knows that Hitler and FDR were different, but > he can't help noticing that both responded to the Depression with the > same two-sided program. Each abandoned what we now call "free market > capitalism," the belief that the capitalist marketplace automatically > corrects itself. In its place, each introduced state regulation of the > economy. And each introduced job and social welfare programs, giving > the federal government responsibility for alleviating the suffering > caused by economic crisis. Previously, private and local charities had > ministered to society's downtrodden. Hitler's initial appeal to > Germans was not that he would solve the problems of the Depression by > killing all the Jews; what he promised was that the Nazis would > protect ordinary people from economic suffering by creating a new kind > of community (to be sure, one restricted to Aryans) with a strong > leader who looked out for their welfare. That's not so different from > what the New Deal promised. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
