Archive for Burton W. Folsom Jr.
Burton Folsom, Jr. is a professor of history at Hillsdale College and FEE’s senior historian. He is the coauthor (with Anita Folsom) of FDR Goes to War (Simon & Schuster) and blogs at www.BurtFolsom.com.
The First Government Bailouts: The Story of the RFC
The idea of using federal money to bail out large failing corporations did not begin with the Bush administration. In the beginning was the RFC, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which President Herbert Hoover pretentiously named and bountifully funded during the Great Depression to bail out corporations deemed too big to fail. In 1932 Congress gave [...]
30Nov2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedWhich Strategy Really Ended the Great Depression?
“World War II got us out of the Great Depression.” Many people said that during the war, and some still do today. The quality of American life, however, was precarious during the war. Food was rationed, luxuries removed, taxes high, and work dangerous. A recovery that does not make—as Robert Higgs points out in Depression, [...]
24Aug2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Progressive Income Tax and the Joy of Spending Other People’s Money
On August 31, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt traveled to Kansas to make a stirring speech in support of a federal income tax. “The really big fortune,” Roosevelt said, “the swollen fortune by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men [...]
21Apr2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Costs of the Civil War
Even after 150 years, the Civil War evokes memories of great men and great battles. Certainly that war was a milestone in U.S. history, and on the plus side it reunited the nation and freed the slaves. Few historians, however, describe the costs of the war. Not just the 620,000 individuals who died, or the [...]
23Mar2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 7 comments | ContinuedAndrew Higgins: Boat Builder of WWII
Who was Andrew Higgins? Almost forgotten now, he was, according to Dwight Eisenhower, “the man who won [World War II] for us.” As General William T. Sherman observed, “War is hell.” That hell includes oppressive taxes, loss of freedom, and crushing debt, as well as deaths in combat. But once in war, as the United [...]
22Dec2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 7 comments | ContinuedTeddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Vision of History
Over a hundred years ago, on August 31, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt gave his famous “New Nationalism” speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. In that speech the former president projected his vision for how the federal government could regulate the American economy. He defended the government’s expansion during his presidency and suggested new ways that it could promote [...]
22Sep2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 8 comments | ContinuedFor the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s
The latest New Deal synthesis is For the Survival of Democracy by veteran historian Alonzo Hamby of Ohio University. What makes Hamby’s research design different is that he describes the development of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal in an international context. Specifically, he weaves the American narrative with events in Britain and Germany in [...]
8Jul2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Did the National Road Fail?
“Let’s build a national road across the country!” many Americans cried in the early 1800s. The idea of a national road was appealing because it would encourage settlement by connecting the East Coast with the interior of the recent Louisiana Purchase. So popular was the idea that in 1806, Congress voted to fund such a [...]
7Jul2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedFDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
The Great Depression of the 1930s was by far the greatest economic calamity in U.S. history. In 1931, the year before Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, unemployment in the United States had soared to an unprecedented 16.3 percent. In human terms that meant that over eight million Americans who wanted jobs could not find them. [...]
6Jul2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 2 comments | ContinuedComparing the Great Depression to the Great Recession
President Obama has often remarked that the Great Recession (2008–10) is the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. It’s interesting to study the many parallels between the Great Recession and the Great Depression. Causation. The main causes of both crises lie in actions of the federal government. In the case of the Great Depression, [...]
20May2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 47 comments | ContinuedWhat Ended the Great Depression?
What finally ended the Great Depression? That question may be the most important in economic history. If we can answer it, we can better grasp what perpetuates economic stagnation and what cures it. The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. From 1931 to 1940 unemployment was always in double digits. In [...]
24Feb2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 43 comments | ContinuedRutherford B. Hayes and the Financing of American Prosperity
Rutherford B. Hayes, America’s nineteenth president (1877–1881), is generally dismissed as a minor, even below-average president. Matthew Josephson, the journalist-chronicler of the late 1800s, insisted that Hayes had “no capacity for . . . large-minded leadership.” Other historians have written him off as just another cipher among a string of forgettable chief executives of the [...]
23Oct2009 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Founders, the Constitution, and the Historians
How could Charles Beard have erred so badly in arguing that the Constitution was written mainly to serve the signers’ economic interests? In part Beard missed the mark because he was trying to hit something else—a Progressive agenda for reform, the excuse to transfer wealth from the haves to the have-nots. If the Founders were merely protecting their economic interests, Beard and his progressive friends were justified in supporting the redistribution of wealth.
11Jun2009 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 17 comments | ContinuedThe Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn’t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game
Alvin Felzenberg, like many thoughtful scholars, has a beef with the way historians have evaluated American presidents. Ever since 1948, the year of the first Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. poll, historians have ranked American presidents and published the results. In the case of Schlesinger’s poll, a select group of historians ranked all presidents (except for those [...]
24Apr2009 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe NRA: How Price-Fixing Perpetuated the Great Depression
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) dramatically altered America’s traditional free-market system. Under the NRA, a majority of firms in any industry had government approval backed by force to determine how much a factory could expand, what wages had to be paid, the number of hours to be worked, and the prices of products. Whether or not a businessman helped write the code for his industry, he was bound by the terms and subject to a fine or jail term if he violated them.
1Apr2009 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 26 comments | Continued
Andrew Mellon: The Entrepreneur as Politician
Rarely do spectacular entrepreneurs leave their realm of business for the political arena. One exception is Andrew Mellon, the third-wealthiest American of his era, who left a dazzling career in American industry to become secretary of treasury under Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Mellon established his career in Pittsburgh as a successful [...]
1Dec2008 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 4 comments | ContinuedEquality, Markets, and Morality
Burton Folsom, Jr. is a professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of New Deal or Raw Deal?, to be published by Simon & Schuster this year. The subject of “equality” is the source of much political debate. Ever since the founding era, free-market thinkers have argued for equality of opportunity in the economic [...]
1Sep2008 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 5 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
