....anybody who wants to know how your grandparents lived during the Depression should read Frederick Lewis Allen’s “Only Yesterday”....it’s very readable and will give you a deeper appreciation of what your ancestors went thru.
Great book recommendation. I just re-read it. Well-written, with good insight on a very different time.
Are there any books available on how ‘Main Street’ businesses reacted to FDR’s policies?
There were many during the GD that went to jail because they did not follow the NRA guidelines as I understand, and resented greatly the government intervention. Then there were those who found they could profit with FRD’s policies.
But were the sentiments the same back then as now concerning business? As Ray Moley discovered in order to have economic ‘central planning’, you would need a police state. The rules were/are being so changed to punish the productive that many businesses withdrew and decided to wait them out. (Such as the ‘Capital Strike’ as FDR called it, leading to a ‘undistributed profits tax’)
Many small business owners such as myself are refusing to participate in ‘Obamanomics’.
I’ve had that book for over a decade, haven’t picked it up since I first read it. I think I’ll revisit it, thank you for the suggestion. And your post reminded me I still need to order The Forgotten Man and American Progressivism, so thanks for that too.