Summary Of A Renegade History Of The United States By Thaddeus Russell

Thaddeus Russell, author of A Renegade History of The United States, furthers his book by changing his focus to one specific presidency,Franklin D. Roosevelt’s. Roosevelt strays away from democratic policies and tries to swift the nation into an autocracy. Roosevelt’s presidency was on the verge of dictatorship. Russell continues to explain how this one particular presidents ideas and policies were no longer self-governing, but seemingly a tyranny waiting to arise. The president plans on propaganda and censorship were said to make America great again. By exploring the elements of autocracy and democracy, Roosevelt's administration was an autocracy.

In order to understand why it was so clear that Roosevelt was on the verge of Authoritarianism

Where as an autocracy shifts the power solely to one person which is clearly what Roosevelt was trying to do during his presidential era. During the time of his presidency the nation was in the middle of the Great Depression, in which millions of Americans lost jobs,businesses and a lot of their life savings. Roosevelt closed the nation's banks, which lasted servals days. Thaddeus Russell states, “For the first time in United States history, a president closed the nation's banks. Then on March 9, Congress transferred much of its power to the president and gave him authority over a large swath of the nation’s economy”(244-5). Roosevelt won four elections by a landslide, giving his so much unlimited power the president had the authority to regulate who received what and when. Democratic power no longer had any influence. The fact that in a democratic society, keyword society, meaning involving the general population's opinion on the matter would have been involved.

During this time the president established military work camps similar to how Hitler had made concentration camps for the Jews. The military style camps were for young men to get them ready for war, they were known as soil soldiers. Thaddeus Russell states, Civilian Conservation Corps, also created in 1933 , which placed young me in military-style camps and put them to work in the nation’s hinterland”(253). The purpose of this camp was prepared men for the war that was about to happen. There was a lot of similarities between Nazi work camps and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The programs were praised for taking youth off the streets and into productive work. Another program made in order to “help” the people was affordable living. The act that stated the affordable living was called the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Roosevelt and Hitler both shared the idea. The government controlled how many farmers would produce and the price. The author states, “Roosevelt and Hitler both saw the family farm as the root of national virtue”(252). With that kind of control, limiting the production of farmed goods makes it difficult for one to get enough food for one's family. With this act being established it was followed by the Subsistence Homestead program which granted families housing on land where they are able to produce a good portion of their own food. This was to help initiate independence and to help