The Forgotten Man

History is anything but a pile of dust to me. As a boy, I indulged in long mental journeys into the past, wandering the streets of the illustrious Benin Empire, taking in the sights and sounds of Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire as he made his pilgrimage to Mecca, abundant gold in tow. Scaring myself silly with images of Anubis come to life and other creepy (but cool) Egyptian gods.

Later, I learned about the great European empires, their wars, successes and failures. Even later, American history became the focus. I'm particularly interested in the Indian Wars of the late 19th century. I believe the study of history is important to the continued progress of civilization—we can learn what has worked and what hasn't.

One thing I cannot abide is revisionist history, when an attempt is made to gloss over facts such that, if repeated often enough, becomes the received wisdom of our time. One example of this is the idea of the New Deal. Amity Shlaes has written an exemplary book titled, The Forgotten Man, which attempts, successfully I might add, to correct the currently prevalent view that the New Deal  in itself was a resounding success.

Reading, I've found out that the Brain Trust, architects of the New Deal, were really a bunch of naive academics and others who idolized such glorious examples of the best humanity has to offer as Stalin and Mussolini. Roosevelt, while immensely popular, was so ignorant of basic economics that he constantly experimented with the currency—one day, in bed, he raised the price of gold by 21 cents. When Henry Morgenthau, who would shortly become Treasury Secretary, asked him why, Roosevelt said that “it's a lucky number, because it's three times seven.” Morgenthau later wrote: “If anybody every knew how we set the gold price through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think they would be frightened.”

There's more, and it's all badly interesting. Here we find the burgeoning, inchoate stirrings of the modern liberal movement and it is a sight to behold as one currently knows what it has wrought—the colic baby grew into an asshole adult.

Highest recommendation.