Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945

David M. Kennedy is a history professor at Stanford who combines economic analysis with his historical analysis.  In this book he has provided a detailed look at the Great Depression and the New Deal, the social safety net tools of Social Security, unemployment compensation, and others which he asserts served to lay a foundation of security that was missing prior to their creation.  Kennedy argues this "security" structure, while having no immediate impact on the economy, was instrumental in restoring confidence in the financial/banking sector and ultimately provided a strong platform for growth in the quarter of century after the end of WWII.  Meantime in the latter part of the '30's,  FDR began to demonize businessmen as "malefactors of great wealth", etc, the up-to-then fledgling recovery began to fail, unemployment rose and things in general got much worse until the war buildup finally put everyone to work in the early '40's, at least temporarily.  The similarities between FDR's demonization of businessmen,m capitalism and the profit motive and what Obama has been doing recently are striking.  Two years into the Obama administration,  it appears that unemployment is once more rising and business activity is declining.  Kennedy points out that FDR created great uncertainty and destroyed the confidence of the business class by demonizing them. Unsurprisingly business then refused to hire and expand their businesses and the recession dragged on.  Obama might read this book and learn that it is only the business class that creates jobs and when they are skeptical of the direction of the administration they will not be hiring.  Case closed.