Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Newsweek says "History does not repeat itself. But..."
The March 30, 2009 edition of Newsweek proclaims that history does not repeat itself but that themes and parallels abound our history. Take, for example, this article by Michael Kazin on how Obama's populist message parallels others in history. So, your assignment is to comment on how accurate the parallels are between now and points in the past are. Does Kazin have a valid point? Commentary is manditory; good commentary is rewarded. Click on the pictures below to make them bigger and more readable.
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12 comments:
okay, I'm not going to lie I'm not going to be very confident with my response here. I think that the parallels made between Obama's populist message and FDR are pretty accurate. Obama said that he wanted to channel his anger to be constructive. From that I assume he means through reform and legislation, which was exactly the same action FDR took to attempt to slow down the involvement of corporate giants in government. In both cases it took a massive economic downturn for the realization to be made that big business' may have too much power (Great Depression, Wall Street and AIG scandal). From comparing these two events, I would have to say that Kazin and Newsweek make a good point when saying that history doesn't repeat itself but makes parallels. If it was repeating itself we would be suffering through another Great Depression, and while we are struggling, it's not comparable to those standards quite yet.
p.s. Is this the kind of response you're looking for Gus?
I agree with Jacqui. Obama has talked about many promises and reforms he wants to make, like when we watched his address. FDR used this tactic as he was president, and he had enough support for three terms. Jacqui is right in that we are not currently in a repression, but just like in FDR's time, the public is still not trusting. One radio station a few weeks ago commented that when Obama talked about some of his new plans, the stock market fell, people wanting to get their money out of the hands of those in power. On another point, while conditions are not perfect now, life is much better than during FDR's time. Obama might not be able to make the same kind of impact as FDR did, so I think it will be interesting to see how this works out.
Ahem...
I also agree with Jacqui's comments surrounding the fact that history does not repeat itself. Events in the past happen similarly now and obviously we all know that but this is not repitition. As Jacqui said, if it were, then we'd all be in bread lines and looking for jobs. However, if the AIG/Wallstreet situation does happen to escalate to be depression-sized then yes, history will have repeated itself. Both presidents have very similar strategies too, sort of a guessing game (most governing usually is) and we shall have to see if the present problem turns out the same as the past one had. In other cases, though, history is repeating itself, such as the common economical pattern of boom, recession, boom, etc., and how in Theodore Roosevelt's time getting involved on other countries affairs was common, as it still is today. I suppose in some cases, history can repeat itself but in others it is just close parallels.
I agree with the previous comments and that history does not repeat itself but merely has similarities. The present economic situation cannot be defined as repeating history because it is just a common situation throughout history. Just as Emily said it is a common pattern of boom, recession, boom. So the presidents response cannot be seen as being history repeated but as the best response for the situation. Even though Obama's response may be very similiar to FDR's it is only a parallel to the past. Newsweek makes a good point in distinguishing parallels from history repeating itself. It seems as though the two can be easily confused.
I think history does repeat itself, just not in this situation. As everyone agrees, the economic crisis of today is not another Great Depression, but what about the Alien Act Adams signed? It was overturned and then basically the same thing was passed in World War II regarding Japanese Americans. And we repeated the invason of South American countries numerous times throughout history. We've even repeated our responses to war. In the Revolutionary War and both World Wars, Americans have rationed food in the same ways. While I agree with Kazin that history is not being repeated in with the current economic crisis, I disagree with his theory that history is never repeated.
I agree with the author in saying that today's financial crisis has parellels to the great depression. FDR and Obama both took a populist approachs. FDR (New Deal) was famous for his great legislative program to help the lower and middle class i.e (FLSA, Social Security etc. Obama is using his stimulus package to give money to projects that will employ people while helping the communities. But there are some differences. FDR did not have to deal with the extreme abuse of power by executives in large companies such as AIG. And he did not have to make decisions whether or not to bail out these companies. I think that Obama needs to get touger or else CHANGE WILL NOT HAPPEN!
I disagree with the statement that history never repeats itself because obviously from reading our textbooks, theres plenty of times when the US took the same approach to the same problem (like war strategies in Vietnam and Korea) and many more times when policies of involvement in Latin America and containment during the Cold war were the US's main foreign policy strategies. If you look at the phrase literally "history never repeats itself" the kind of obvious answer is that no, it doesnt because the country learns from previous mistakes and is careful to avoid making the same ones in similar situations. However, there is still the same mentality behind different points in history (like FDR's populist approach and now Obamas) that can be seen as "repeating itself."
I agree with Tovia. I also believe that sometimes history does repeat itself but not exactly in this economic crisis. There are a lot of times where the US has made very similar decisions as one they made in the past. I think that the parallels are accurate though because Obama's reaction to this situation is very similar to FDR's during the great depression. History is not repeating itself here because the conditions are not even close to as bad as they were in the great depression. But maybe if the conditions now keep getting worse we might see some repetition.
i completely agree with tovia. i think that history does repeat itself. just not in the economic situation right now. Obama and FDR have very similar approaches. both looked for support of the American people and if we stay together as a country we can pull through. What is the same in American history is the economic boom pattern (as Imp haha mentioned) whats different is how the government reacts. Some (like Obama) whos believes in improving lives and jobs will lead to a better economy and some republicans that believe in helping business to help the economy. the responses are different but both are trying to pull the economy out of a slump. History repeats itself in the way that our responses to wars. and the food rationing during the cold war and WWI and WWII.
I agree with Grace (and many others).I also agree with the author in that today's financial crisis has parellels to the great depression to an extent. I do believe we have a boom and bust economy..right now we are in a recession but I don't really worry because like previous times (just like in the great depression) we somehow made our way out of it.However, i dont believe that history repeats its self..more like trends just come back, makes sense? I also think that there might be a similarity between FDRs new deal and Obamas populist approach since they both target lower and middle class in need of help whether economically,legally, or health wise.
I agree with basically everyone else that history can repeat itself, but that things cannot repeat exactly. The economic crisis that we are going through now is compared to the Great Depression, but the truth is that it is not as bad now as it was back then. I also like Jaqui's point that in both the instances of the Great Depression and our economy today, it took an economic downturn for everyone to realize that big businesses like AIG and automobile companies hold too much power in our economy. That and the fact that Obama and FDR took and are taking similar steps to fix our economy are both examples of similarities between events in history. Obviously the Great Depression and the current economic meltdown are not the same thing because the Depression was much worse, but the two do share similarities. I think that history does not exactly repeat itself because we learn from our mistakes. I don't know the reason why Obama is taking similar steps to FDR's to revive the economy, but it may be because he knows that it worked before. Why couldn't it work again?
Some excellent comments on this article. I thought it especially interesting that you criticized the author's rather abrupt pronouncement that history does not repeat itself by citing specific cases of eerily similar actions and reactions.
Comments closed.
~Gus
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