Description
Book SynopsisThe years after World War I have often been seen as an era when Republican presidents and business leaders brought the growth of government in the United States to a halt. Jesse Tarbert reveals a forgotten effort by business-allied reformers to expand federal power—and how that effort was foiled by Southern Democrats and their political allies.
Trade ReviewIn
When Good Government Meant Big Government, we see American policy makers look, for the first time, to the corporation for inspiration in how to run the country, only to find that America could not be as easily ruled as the market. In this sweeping and writerly history, Tarbert lays bare the prehistory of our own times, as early twentieth-century reformers struggle with how to manage big government, white supremacy, and economic dislocations. -- Louis Hyman, author of
Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became TemporaryThere have been dramatic fights in recent years about the size and scope of government and whether the country needs another New Deal. In
When Good Government Meant Big Government, Jesse Tarbert offers new insights into those conflicts by tracing how self-described “public men” took inspiration from big businesses in their efforts to clean up and expand an executive branch that had become large, unwieldy, and ineffective before WWI. -- Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, author of
Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College DebtWhen Good Government Meant Big Government provides an authoritative history of the United States’ twentieth-century evolution into a nation equipped with a powerful central government. That path, Tarbert argues, was forged with the help of a powerful set of business-oriented elites eager to import corporate practice into the federal government and keen to demonstrate that the most egregious racist excess damaged America’s reputation as a “nation of laws.” -- Brian Balogh, author of
The Associational State: American Governance in the Twentieth CenturyFollowing Schumpeter’s observation that “the budget is the skeleton of the state,” Tarbert offers readers a clearly written, well researched, and historiographically up-to-date analysis of federal budget policy from Wilson to FDR. Historians, political scientists, and historical sociologists can all profit from Tarbert’s judicious analysis of the partisan divisions that shaped the policy debate—a factionalism that in often surprising ways prefigured the political landscape we live in today. -- Richard R. John, author of
Network Nation: Inventing American TelecommunicationsTarbert’s book joins a rich literature on the creation and development of the American state...[and] will require historians, APD scholars, and lawyers to grapple with the argument. -- Patrick J. Sobkowski * Liberal Currents *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Administration and Accommodation: Before 1913
2. The Elite Reformers in Exile: 1913–1918
3. After the Armistice: Spring 1919
4. The Budget Debate: 1919–1920
5. The Dark Horse: 1920–1921
6. Early Success: Spring and Summer 1921
7. Equal Protection Under Law: 1921–1923
8. Backlash: Spring and Summer 1923
9. Southern Strength: 1923–1924
10. Congressional Counteroffensive: Spring 1924
11. Low Expectations: 1924–1927
12. The Great Engineer: 1929–1931
13. Dashed Hopes: 1930–1933
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Index
