Balkinization  

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Last Days of Laissez-Faire

Ken Kersch

Spirited laissez-faire arguments peppered the media and other popular outlets in the decades leading up to the New Deal. These in many ways anticipate those now being used by the Tea Party and others on the contemporary Right.

Those interested in these dire, anti-(big) government warnings from a century ago – and their similarities and differences from the warnings issuing from the modern Right -- might enjoy historian Maxwell Bloomfield’s engaging study Peaceful Revolution: Constitutional Change and American Culture from Progressivism to the New Deal (Harvard University Press, 2000).


Bloomfield’s book is probably more relevant now than when it was published back in 2000 -- and is well worth a look for anyone interested in the country's current constitutional politics.


Older Posts
Newer Posts
Home