List of critics of the New Deal

During the Great Depression, which took place between 1929 and 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's instituted a series of programs called the New Deal. The New Deal attracted a number of critics from both ends of the political spectrum. These include:

From the Left

• James P. Cannon, the leading American Trotskyite and founder of the Socialist Workers Party (USA)
• Charles Coughlin, Irish Catholic priest with huge radio audience; originally a Roosevelt supporter in 1932 but by 1935 had become an opponent.
• William Z. Foster, Communist Party USA presidential candidate in 1932 and leader of the hard-line Stalinist faction within the CPUSA
• William Lemke, North Dakota congressman, who ran a third-party Presidential campaign against Roosevelt in 1936 on the ad-hoc Union Party ticket.
• John L. Lewis leader of coal miners and CIO; supported Willkie
• Huey Long, Democratic Governor and Senator from Louisiana. Lemke and Long criticized the New Deal for not going far enough. Long proposed a more radical plan called Share Our Wealth.
• Gerald L.K. Smith, Long supporter; Protestant preacher
• William James Sidis, estimated 250-300 IQ; critized Roosevelt for adopting dictatorial measures in periodicals.
• Francis Townsend, a California doctor who proposed his own guaranteed income plan for senior citizens.

From the Right (some were formerly on the Left)

Politicians

• James Farley FDR's campaign manager in 1928 and 1932; Postmaster General (1933-40); Democratic party organizer; broke in 1940
• John Nance Garner supported FDR in 1932; elected vice president 1932 and 1936; broke with FDR in 1937 on Court Packing
• William Randolph Hearst, owned newspaper chain; major supporter of FDR in 1932, broke in 1935 over Bonus for veterans. New Dealers ridiculed him in movie Citizen Kane (1940)
• Herbert Hoover, leading Republican
• Hugh S. Johnson, first head of NRA see [1]
• Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Ambassador to Britain, leader of Irish Americans and father of President John Kennedy
• Charles Lindbergh, pilot who was national hero in 1920s; leader of isolationist America First Committee 1940-41
• George N. Peek, farm leader; supported FDR in 1932
• Ronald Reagan, leader of Hollywood actors; strong New Dealer in 1940s; started opposing New Deal programs in the 1960s
• Al Smith Democratic nominee in 1928; founded American Liberty League in 1934 to attack New Deal
• Robert Taft, Republican Senator from Ohio
• Burton Wheeler, Democratic Senator from Montana; broke in 1937

Prewar critics who supported Roosevelt during WW2

• Wendell Willkie, Republican presidential candidate in 1940; supported FDR 1941-43
• Henry Stimson Hoover's Secretary of State; joined FDR cabinet as Secretary of War, 1940-45
• Frank Knox Republican VP candidate in 1936; joined FDR cabinet as Secretary of Navy, 1940-44
• Carter Glass, conservative Senator from Virginia
• Lewis Douglas, Budget Director, 1933
• Dean Acheson, Treasury official in 1933; Assistant Secretary of State 1944

Writers

• Charles Beard, leading historian
• Raymond Moley former top Brain Truster
• Albert Jay Nock, libertarian author and social critic
• Garet Garrett, journalist who traveled the country exposing what he called the negative effects and corruption of the Roosevelt
• Ezra Pound, poet and expatriate; broadcast for Mussolini in WW2
• John T. Flynn, muck-raking journalist, The New Republic columnist, former liberal
• John Dos Passos, novelist; formerly on left
• Isabel Paterson, libertarian author
• Ayn Rand, novelist, founder of Objectivism and one inspiration for libertarianism
• Thomas Fleming, Historian
• Jim Powell, historian

References

Books with an anti-New Deal point of view

• The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II (2002) by Thomas Fleming
• Defend America First: The Antiwar Editorials of the Saturday Evening Post, 1939-1942 (2003) by Garet Garret, edited by Bruce Ramsey
• Salvos Against the New Deal: Selections from the Saturday Evening Post: 1933-1940 (2002) by Garet Garrett, edited by Bruce Ramsey
• The Roosevelt Myth (1948) by John T. Flynn (rev 1952)
• Garet Garrett's: The People's Pottage (1953) by Garet Garrett* America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard (1972).
• Hoover Herbert. Addresses Upon the American Road, 1933-1938. (1938)
• Hoover, Herbert. Addresses upon the American Road: 1940-1941(1941)
• After Seven Years (1939) by Raymond Moley* Rethinking the Great Depression (2003) by Gene Smiley
• FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (2003) by Jim Powell
• Rothbard, Murray. America's Great Depression. Princeton, NJ, 1963, an analytic attack from a leading libertarian.

Scholarly secondary sources

• Brinkley, Alan. Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression (1983)
• Graham, Otis L. and Meghan Robinson Wander, eds. Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Life and Times. (1985). The best encyclopedic reference.
• Kennedy, David M. Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. (1999) the best recent scholarly narrative.
• McCoy, Donald R. Landon of Kansas (1966) standard scholarly biography
• Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., The Age of Roosevelt, 3 vols, (1957-1960), the classic pro-New Deal history, with details on critics. Online at vol 2 vol 3
• Rudolf, Frederick. "The American Liberty League, 1934-1940," American Historical Review, LVI (October 1950), 19-33; online at JSTOR
• Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover (1987) covers 1933-64
• Williams, T. Harry. Huey Long (1969), Pulitzer Prize history
• Wolfskill, George. The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League, 1934-1940 (1962) is the standard scholarly history.