New Deal Fat Cats: Campaign Finances and the Democratic Part in 1936 / Edition 2

by Michael Webber

Overview

In New Deal Fat Cats, Michael Webber offers a fresh perspective on the New Deal. The author analyzes the role of various segments of society in party politics during the political change brought on by the Great Depression. Webber uses analysis of campaign contribution as a major method of evaluating the 1936 presidential election. Today's readers may be surprised at the statistical breakdown of the group that reelected FDR. These groups ranged from southern Democrats and organized labor, to Catholics, Jews, and small businesses. A considerable portion of the author's analysis rests on interpretive literature about the politics of the New Deal and specifically about the role of business in the construction of those politics. The emphasis of this work is on the coalition of what seem to be disparate elements in society suggesting that large and monolithic power blocks are not necessarily the road to major political change in U.S. society. The reader will begin to sense the seemingly divisive pressures from different groups that made the New Deal not only a paradox, but an effective social reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823219469
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Edition description:	2
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Webber is Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of San Francisco.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	ix
	Acknowledgments	xv
1.	The New Deal in Historical and Theoretical Perspective	1
2.	Deserters and Traitors: Did Business Desert the Democrats between 1932 and 1936?	17
3.	The Mass-Consumption Sector and Democratic Party Finances	29
4.	Industrial Structure and Party Competition during the New Deal: The Investment Theory of Politics Reconsidered	45
5.	Roosevelt's "Soft Money Scandal": The Democratic Convention Book of 1936	70
6.	New York City and the South: The Role of Religion and Region in Financing the 1936 Election	80
7.	Organized Labor's Political Baptism: FDR and the Unions	107
8.	Conclusion	127
	Methodological Appendix	135
	References	143
	Index	161