The Nazi Press Enthusiastically Hailed the Early New Deal Measures: America, Like the Reich Had Broken with the Frenzy of Market Speculation

Critics of Roosevelt's New Deal often liken it to fascism. Roosevelt's numerous defenders dismiss this charge as reactionary propaganda; but as Wolfgang Schivelbusch makes clear, it is perfectly true. Moreover, it was recognized to be true during the 1930s, by the New Deal's supporters as well as its opponents. . . . 

The Nazi press enthusiastically hailed the early New Deal measures: America, like the Reich, had decisively broken with the "uninhibited frenzy of market speculation." The Nazi Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, "stressed 'Roosevelt's adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies,' praising the president's style of leadership as being compatible [to] Hitler's own dictatorial Führerprinzip." . . .

Mussolini, who did not allow his work as dictator to interrupt his prolific journalism, wrote a glowing review of Roosevelt's Looking Forward. He found "reminiscent of fascism. . .the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices"; and, in another review, this time of Henry Wallace's New Frontiers, Il Duce found the Secretary of Agriculture's program similar to his own corporativism.

--David Gordon, review of Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Mises Review 12, no. 3 (Fall 2006).