Folsom's book sales spike with economic downturn

After spending the spring semester promoting his book "New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America" on TV networks across America, Professor of History Burt Folsom is ready to tackle a new project: a book examining the claim that World War II brought America out of the Great Depression. He will take spring sabbaticals until 2011 to work on it.

"Many people think that World War II ended the Great Depression," Anita Folsom, who is co-authoring the next book with her husband, said. "But another point of view is that it simply transferred the 10 million Americans, approximately, that were unemployed in 1940 and transferred the 10 million into the military."

That transfer, Anita Folsom said, caused the United States debt to grow by six times.

Burt Folsom said "New Deal or Raw Deal" was planned as a two-volume series, with the first book focusing on Franklin D. Roosevelt's first two terms during the Great Depression and the next to focusing on World War II. His spring sabbatical was primarily to begin the sequel to "New Deal or Raw Deal" but was spent speaking on Roosevelt fiscal policies on national television and radio.

Burt Folsom said he appeared on The Glenn Beck Program, C-SPAN and The Michael Medved Show to discuss the New Deal and its relevance to the present economic situation. He also appeared on Fox News to discuss bias in textbooks.

Junior Michelle Philbrook said her high school debate coach, Michael Winther, recommended she read Folsom's first book, "The Myth of the Robber Barons," as a basic economic idea.

"What I've read so far is very informative and concise, and I enjoy his logic," Philbrook said.

The latest Schlesinger Poll, about 12 years ago, ranked Lincoln and Roosevelt as the top two presidents. Burt Folsom said he began writing "New Deal or Raw Deal" in earnest because Roosevelt was ranked ahead of Washington.

"I think we've upped the level of that debate, forcing that to be resolved," Burt Folsom said. "It forces a sophistication of the argument, and to have accomplished that, I think, will be a good thing."

Burt Folsom said he was concerned that most contemporary historians lavish undue praise on Roosevelt and ignore that his policies may have prolonged the Great Depression. The book came out in November, during the 2008 elections.

Burt Folsom said the first two months of sales were moderate, but when the stimulus package, bank crisis and rise in unemployment took off, so did book sales.

"Obviously, I don't want the economy to crater and to crash, and I hope it doesn't, but it is one of these peculiarities that worse the economy is, the better the sales of the book," he said.

Anita Folsom is researching the effects of Roosevelt's policies in the domestic realm during World War II, like rationing. Folsom said she is digging through New York Times articles from the 1940s addressing Roosevelt's domestic policies. The Folsoms said they were looking at the theory that the change in policy after the Roosevelt administration ended finally pulled Americans out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt heavily increased regulation in every aspect of American life during the Great Depression, Anita said, even in some unusual areas.

"Burt was reading last night that were was regulation against hunting and fishing," Anita Folsom said. "I'm still not exactly sure why the fishing, but for hunting I'd imagine it was for the ammunition."

Anita Folsom also said that radio was heavily censored and was essentially used for propaganda by Roosevelt. The head of the Office of War Information abused radio so much it was shut down by congress in 1945.

Burt Folsom said he should finish the book by late 2010 or early 2011 in preparation for the 70th anniversary of the attack on Peal Harbor.