The Forgotten Man
recently bought and listened to the audio version of this book, by amity shlaes. i knew FDR was among the top 3 tyrants in US history, but i didn’t know it was this bad, nor how much pure and direct communist influence found its way into US politics in the 20s and 30s. the imitation was not coincidental. violent arrogance at its peak, only kept from full communism by the resistance of individuals.
if like me you’ve avoided learning too much about FDR and his traitor henchmen (including the “supreme” court), you also may not have heard of the case of the sick chicken, which amity shlaes discusses in full enough detail to enrage any freeborn man. in a 1999 article “Cutthroat Competition and Dead Chickens“, james bovard highlighted this small aspect of the “new deal”, buzzword for betrayal of what america lincoln left for the buzzards.
grew up in the US? you were lied to. that’s the short story. can’t believe the swill fed to me by “educators” about this rat bastard FDR and the scum swimming around him so they could remake society with cudgels and sanctimony. would things have been much different if FDR assassination hopeful guiseppe zangara succeeded? i doubt it. as with this most recent debacle (neocon horde), the path to totalitarianism is mostly paved by the victims with their full approval, however ignorant. The Forgotten Man exposes once again the important dictum of restraint which humans will likely be forever too stupid to heed: don’t just do something; stand there.
UPDATE: podcast of amity shlaes talking about her book. BTW, i subscribe to the EconTalk podcast, and they’re generally pretty interesting, though, despite claiming otherwise, they suffer from the usual statism of the dismal quackdom.
October 3rd, 2007 at 19:14
Haven’t read that one yet, but have read some other stuff by Amity Shales. Not surprised to hear that this one is very good.
If you haven’t read The Roosevelt Myth by John T. Flynn, by all means check it out at your earliest convenience. Flynn had FDR’s number back in the 40′s–boy did he have it! He told the truth; he paid the price.
October 3rd, 2007 at 19:26
Whoops! I meant Amity Shlaes, sorry for the typo.
I read what I think was her first book many years ago, The Greedy Hand (basically about the venality of income taxes). It was pretty good beachside reading and I enjoyed reading it at the time.
October 3rd, 2007 at 19:32
just checked for that flynn book on audible.com; looks like it’s only in print. lately, listening to books is the only book reading i do. so damned efficient. last night i was repairing my bicycle while listening to ayn rand. nice mix.
if i make it back to visible books, i’ll look for both you mentioned. thanks.
October 4th, 2007 at 09:05
The Greedy Hand is a pretty good quick read; The Roosevelt Myth is a classic, a veritable tour de force, especially considering when it was published and the wrath the author was willing to endure in order to get the truth out.
October 4th, 2007 at 09:33
after reading some of the “customer” reviews of shlaes’s and flynn’s books, i’ve decided there’s little scarier than an FDR worshiper. mad power-grabbing is, apparently, the practice of demigods “we” were fortunate enough to have tread the soil of the former US.