The New Deal by Paul Keith Conkin - Book Report/Review Example

The book also explores the New Deal's measures in the third chapter by stressing that all the attempts which were taken to put an end to the problem of unemployment in a real sense met with failure.

The author tells that though the intention and the notion of such actions were acceptable, the implementation was not proper. This is the real cause of the failure according to the author. Not much is indicated or explained about the suffering of the impoverished, unemployed workers in particular. Later, the author expresses his conception about the Welfare State and this part is very interesting. Conkin does not view the New Deal as a class conflict; rather his treatment is analytical and more sophisticated.

We could see throughout the book, Conkin tries to give importance to the implications of social welfare and places the labor relations in the second place as opposed to the leftists. Later, we are provided with some account of the welfare legislation, which according to the author has promised much and delivered little. In this way, the welfare legislation was able to introduce, elaborate its policies but was unable to implement them successfully. Conkin has covered one area well in his book.

And this particular area has much to tell about the economic theory behind the New Deal. At the same time, it also focuses on the influences of Keynes on Rooseveltian policy. One thing that the reader should note is the linkage that the author tries to develop between the private sector and social welfare. How well the private sectors contributed to social welfare has been explained neatly. The book is a wealth of information about the period in which it was written. It offers us a great picture of the then-existing society and the political revolution the time experienced.

Though there may be some flaws with the book, in regard to certain issues, no doubt it is a brilliantly written work and it is worthwhile to read. The book does not give us any solution for the problem of the society of the concerned time; still, its true exploration of the New Deal's actions and the failure of those methods are interesting, and looking at it in this way, the book's open discussion has to be valued.