The Coming of the New Deal, 1933–1935 was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1959 as the second volume of The Age of Roosevelt. It covers the most dramatic period of peacetime government action in American history: FDR’s first hundred days and the two years that followed, during which the federal government transformed its relationship to the economy and to citizens.
Schlesinger chronicles the creation of the alphabet agencies — the NRA (National Recovery Administration), the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration), the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) — with the narrative energy of a war correspondent describing a campaign. The chapters on the first hundred days are particularly vivid: the banking crisis, the beer bill, the extraordinary legislative productivity of a Congress willing to pass almost anything the president sent it.
The volume’s interpretive framework presents the New Deal as pragmatic experimentation rather than ideological program. Roosevelt tried things; what worked, he kept; what failed, he discarded. This interpretation — the New Deal as pragmatic liberalism rather than systematic reform — served Schlesinger’s larger argument that American liberalism is empirical rather than doctrinaire. Critics argued that this underestimates the ideological commitments of New Deal planners and the structural changes the programs produced.
Collecting The Coming of the New Deal
First edition (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1959): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $50–$125
- Very good: $20–$50
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
FDR’s First Hundred Days
The Coming of the New Deal (1958) is Volume II of The Age of Roosevelt, covering 1933–1935 — the explosive first years of the Roosevelt presidency. Schlesinger captures the energy and improvisation of the New Deal: the banking crisis, the NRA, the AAA, the TVA, and the extraordinary group of intellectuals and activists who came to Washington. The volume is the strongest in the trilogy, combining narrative momentum with analytical depth, and Schlesinger’s portrait of FDR as a pragmatic experimenter rather than an ideologue is now the standard interpretation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Schlesinger portray FDR? As a political genius who combined personal charm, ruthless pragmatism, and a genuine commitment to social justice. Schlesinger’s FDR is neither saint nor villain but a supremely skilled democratic leader who understood that democracy requires constant adaptation.