Nobody can predict with any certainty how the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency is going to turn out, but the last time the country decided to play host to a major financial crisis, the new president and cabinet changed the face of America. In his new book Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America, Adam Cohen, my former colleague at Time, now a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, tells the story of the remarkable men and the even more remarkable woman (Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor, the first female Cabinet secretary) who in those first months began to turn the country away from the depression. Here Adam takes a few questions.
Three quarters of a century have passed since the Depression, and fewer and fewer people have a first hand memory of the situation. Remind us–how bad was it, and how ready was America for dramatic change?
As tough as times are now, they pale compared to 1933. When FDR took office, the unemployment rate was 25 percent. The banking system had collapsed — many banks had failed, and every bank in the country had been ordered closed. In rural areas, farmers were leaving the land because it did not pay to grow crops. In the cities, there were breadlines and unemployed men selling apples on street corners. There were enormous “Hoovervilles” — shanty towns built by the poor — in parks and under bridges throughout the country. My book begins with a chilling, but not uncommon scene — unemployed people descending on a garbage dump in Chicago, and rummaging for food.
Roosevelt surrounded himself with talented and dedicated people like Frances Perkins, Henry Wallace and Harry Hopkins, and gave them a lot of leeway to devise policy. Were they the unsung heroes of the New Deal?
Absolutely. FDR was a great president, no doubt about it. And the New Deal would not have been possible without his charismatic leadership and keen political sense. But much of the substance of what was accomplished, however, we owe to the people around FDR. Frances Perkins was a driving force behind many of the most important New Deal programs. During the first Hundred Days, she pushed for large-scale public works programs to put the unemployed to work. She prevailed, and many families survived the Depression because of these jobs. Later, she headed the committee that developed Social Security. Henry Wallace drafted the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which rescued the farm belt. And Harry Hopkins drew up the plan for the first federal welfare program, and ended up administering it. The program was critical to helping unemployed people survive the hard times. These were brilliant, idealistic people, and they permanently changed America for the better.
Almost irresistibly, people are comparing Obama’s entrance into our current predicament to FDR’s entrance into The Depression. Is the comparison is apt? Have you been able to discern any comparisons between Obama and FDR at this early stage?
The parallels are remarkable. There are, first of all, the economic hard times, the troubles with the banks, the plunging stock market. And there is the fact that Obama, like FDR, is a Democrat who was elected on a promise of change
and hope, following a deeply unpopular Republican incumbent. It is too early to judge Obama, of course, but it is clear that he is already doing some things remarkably right, and even better than FDR. Roosevelt did not come into office with a plan — he was a pragmatist, who was committed to trying various approaches and seeing if they worked. Obama appears to be far more organized, and more clear-thinking, about what he intends to do. His early talk about a large stimulus package, and about wanting to create millions of jobs, is particularly encouraging.
Look into your crystal ball: Is America as ready for dramatic change as in 1932, and does Obama have the potential to deliver it?
There is definitely a hunger for dramatic change. I think people want a more active government, and they want some major new initiatives, such as national health insurance. Obama has the brains and the charisma and the political skills to bring about these changes. But he will face some obstacles FDR did not. FDR had a largely compliant Congress — even Republicans were committed to helping him achieve his goals, because there was such a desperate need for action. Republicans in Congress today are already indicating that they will give Obama more push-back. There are also more, and more powerfully entrenched, special interests today. For example, to get national health insurance, Obama will have to overcome opposition from the insurance industry, which has a tremendous amount of money and clout.
Can you see any of Obama’s advisors of cabinet officials as having the kind of impact that Wallace, Hopkins or Perkins had in their time?
I expect that some might, though we’ll have to see. If Tom Daschle develops a national health insurance program and gets it through Congress, he will likely go down in history as one of the great Cabinet members. Some progressives have been a little disappointed with the centrism of many of Obama’s appointees, but they are excited about his Secretary of Labor designee, Hilda Solis, a Latina member of Congress who comes from a union background. Solis could be one of the most outspoken liberal voices in the administration. If she ends up being influential, she could be a modern-day Frances Perkins.