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Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time | Ira Katznelson
2 posts | 1 read | 7 to read
“A powerful argument, swept along by Katznelson’s robust prose and the imposing scholarship that lies behind it.”—Kevin Boyle, New York Times Book Review A work that “deeply reconceptualizes the New Deal and raises countless provocative questions” (David Kennedy), Fear Itself changes the ground rules for our understanding of this pivotal era in American history. Ira Katznelson examines the New Deal through the lens of a pervasive, almost existential fear that gripped a world defined by the collapse of capitalism and the rise of competing dictatorships, as well as a fear created by the ruinous racial divisions in American society. Katznelson argues that American democracy was both saved and distorted by a Faustian collaboration that guarded racial segregation as it built a new national state to manage capitalism and assert global power. Fear Itself charts the creation of the modern American state and “how a belief in the common good gave way to a central government dominated by interest-group politics and obsessed with national security” (Louis Menand, The New Yorker).
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KatieMM
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This book has been on my list for the history of institutionalized racial discrimination for a while and it hasn't disappointed. In the age of Trump it feels very relevant for that and for the powers the government took during WWII. I can't say I am enjoying it as such but it is worth the read.

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KatieMM
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Dragging out of my post election reading slump with some reading I have been meaning to get to

MrBook 😻 7y
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