first wrot~these four essays on the New Deal in the summer of
1965， or a ft~ decade ago. It is hard for me to grasp the changes
that have occm red in America in that one decade， impossible to
gauge the exact changes that have occurred in my own beliefs
and preferences. Memory is very deceptive. I cannot， with any
confidence， describe my exact state of mind in that distant and
hot Maryland summer. When I try， I find too many later
intrusions subtly shaping and coloring and often dignifying the
self-portrait. I can only cite the external context with assurance，
and I doubt that it had much to do with the content of the book.
In 1965 the Johnson administration seemed to pass the point of
no return in Vietnam. Escalation had led to full-scale war. I
attended the first national teach-in in May of 1965， and there
heard a historian closely identified with the New Deal defend
Kennedy s and Johnson s Vietnam policies. By then a student
and faculty antiwar movement functioned on most campuses.
But， unless my memory deceives， I was not yet aware of the
breadth and diversity of the developing discontent.
Despite my use of several evaluative perspectives， and my
inclusion of some predominantly analytical sections， my first
goal in writing the book was very traditional: to provide
students with a succinct account of the major domestic policies
adopted during the Roosevelt administration. Ironically， these
largely descriptive sections did not weather as well as the
analysis. Almost every new monograph on the New Deal
revealed some inaccuracy or distortion. |
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