Three New Deals Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal is regarded today as the democratic ideal, a triumphant American response to a crisis that forced Germany and Italy toward National Socialism and Fascism. Yet in the 1930s, before World War II, the regimes of Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler bore fundamental similarities. In this groundbreaking work, Wolfgang Schivelbusch investigates the shared elements of these three "new deals"--focusing on their architecture and public works projects--to offer a new explanation for the popularity of Europe's totalitarian systems. Writing with flair and concision, Schivelbusch casts a different light on the New Deal and puts forth a provocative explanation for the still-mysterious popularity of Europe's most tyrannical regimes.

Wolfgang Schivelbusch is an independent scholar who divides his time between New York and Berlin. His books include The Railway Journey, Disenchanted Night, and Tastes of Paradise.

"Controversial, well written, and convincing, this is historical analysis at its most invigorating."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
 
"Schivelbusch is a brilliant cultural historian . . . who brings a comparative cultural focus to the 1930s with fascinating and provocative ideas."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
 
"Illuminating."--Bloomberg News
 
 
Praise for The Culture of Defeat:
 
"A feast of ideas, many of them strikingly appropriate to our own bellicose times."--San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Fresh and provocative . . . A novel and thought-provoking book."--Houston Chronicle