The Perils of Prosperity, 1914–1932, Second Edition.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
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Author Information:
- William Leuchtenburg, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
- William Leuchtenburg (b. 1922), Wikipedia.
- William E. Leuchtenburg, C-SPAN.
- William E. Leuchtenburg. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932-1940. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - William E. Leuchtenburg. The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - William E. Leuchtenburg. In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, Fourth Edition. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - William E. Leuchtenburg. Herbert Hoover. New York: Times Books / Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - William E. Leuchtenburg. The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
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I think The Perils of Prosperity, 1914–1932 is too short for the very eventful and significant period it covers; but it does have a very thorough bibliographical essay.
Leuchtenburg's discussion of Republican policy during 1914–1932 is mostly dismissive assertions rather than analysis. His analysis of presidential election results in the 1920s (all huge Republican victories) consists more of perverse reasons why people might vote against Democrats and less of the positive reasons of votes for Republicans. The book conveys the impression that the Republican administrations of the 1920s (1921–1933) were a strange interregnum between the supposedly more enlightened reigns of Wilson and FDR. I think we can more insightfully interpret the 1920s as the continuation and termination of the long Republican dominated period from 1860 to FDR, and view Wilson's presidency as an aberration caused by Roosevelt splitting the Republican vote in 1912. (Leuchtenburg implicitly believes, and at one point explicitly asserts, that the Democratic Party is somehow the natural and rightful ruling party of the U.S.)
David M. Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999) provides a superior description and analysis of the Hoover administration and causes of the Great Depression.
Leuchtenburg seems to have done a better job with the Hoover administration in his later book:
- William E. Leuchtenburg. Herbert Hoover. New York: Times Books / Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- William Leuchtenburg and Greta Brawner, "President Herbert Hoover," Washington Journal, C-SPAN, 16 December 2008.