No New Deal

Brad DeLong limns the consequences of a Hoover victory in 1932 (the result of a more aggressive press exposing the extent of FDR's polio as well as his unique personal life) and the subsequent "staying of the course" of Hoover's economic policies. It's quite a fascinating exercise and a reminder of how perilous American society and even its system of government was at that point. It's also important in that a growing meme over the years has been that it wasn't the New Deal that got us out of the Great Depression, but rather it took a global war to do it. WWII poised the U.S. for a huge expansion of the war and post-war economies, but FDR's pre-war policies ended the Great Depression.