Designs within Disorder Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Economists, and the Shaping of American Economic Policy, 1933–1945

More than any of his predecessors in the White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt drew heavily on the thinking of economists as he sought to combat the Great Depression, to mobilize the American economy for war, and to chart a new order for the post-war world. Designs Within Disorder, published in 1996, is an inquiry into the way divergent analytic perspectives competed for official favour and the manner in which the President opted to pick and choose among them when formulating economic policies. During the Roosevelt years, two 'revolutions' were underway simultaneously. One of them involved a fundamental restructuring of the American economy and of the role government was to play in it. A second was an intellectual revolution which engaged economists in reconceptualizing the nature of their discipline. Most of the programmatic initiatives Roosevelt put in place displayed a remarkable staying power for over half a century.

Preface; Guide to abbreviations in citations of sources; Prologue; 1. Stage setting in the presidential campaign of 1932; 2. Curtain raising in the first hundred days; 3. Deployments in the second half of 1933; 4. Rethinking the structuralist agenda (I): the fate of NRA, 1934–5; 5. Rethinking the structuralist agenda (II): the fate of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, 1934-6; 6. Rethinking macroeconomic strategies, 1934–6; 7. Shock tremors and their repercussions, 1937–8; 8. Toward a new 'official model,' 1939–40; 9. Designs for the management of an economy at war; 10. Designs for the postwar world; Epilogue; Bibliographical note; Index.

Franklin D. Roosevelt drew heavily on the thinking of economists as he sought to combat the Great Depression, to mobilize the American economy for war, and to chart a new order for the post-war world. This 1996 book explains how divergent analytic perspectives competed for official favour and the manner in which Roosevelt opted to pick and choose among them when formulating economic policies.