One of the most important lessons that we learn in Badger's book is that there were really three different economic goals in the First Hundred Days. The first was the goal with which we are most familiar--to revitalize the economy and move the nation out of the Great Depression. When we evaluate FDR's success in meeting this challenge, the New Deal does not look very good. It is clear that government spending during WWII was responsible for lifting us out of the Depression, not the New Deal. During the 1930s, FDR was not willing or able to go far enough in growing government.

There was a second goal, however, and that was to rebuild the infrastructure of the economy to create a foundation for stronger economic growth in the future. Badger offers compelling evidence about how the New Deal established the foundations for the era of Great Expectations between 1940s and 1970s, when a wide range of Americans enjoyed unprecedented economic growth. The stories of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration are some of the best examples that we see from this component of the First Hundred Days. As a result of those programs, rural America exited the 1930s with more of the tools citizens needed to participate in economic growth.

During Obama's inauguration address, he suggested that his administration will work on both fronts. He offered a list of projects--such as fixing roads and revamping the digital highway--that sound reminiscent of the FDR we see in Badger's book, a president who is focused on the long-run during a severe crisis and not just on immediate recovery. To sell programs such as health care to the right and Social Security reform to the left, Obama will have to convincingly make the argument that each particular change is essential to building stronger institutions for the future economy.

Finally, Badger shows that FDR not only set out to stimulate growth and establish the foundations needed for a stronger economy in the future, but also to improve social conditions within the economy in order to build a stronger society. The Truth in Securities Act (1933) grew out of progressive ideas about curtailing the concentration of wealth and financial power. The National Recovery Act offered some unprecedented protection to organized labor and began a process that resulted in the Wagner Act in 1935. When economic growth returned in the 1940s and 1950s, programs created in the First Hundred Days, and the rest of the New Deal, diminished some of the extreme social inequalities that had defined American capitalism in the late-19th and early 20th century.
Therefore, as we talk about Obama's First Hundred Days we need to different objectives which he will be pursuing simultaneously.

Therefore, as we talk about Obama's First Hundred Days we need to different objectives which he will be pursuing simultaneously.