This study is concerned with the interplay of economic ideas and events during a dozen years of extraordinary turbulence in the American economy. The administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted formidable challenges, including persisting depression, a major downturn in economic activity (in 1937–38) which the received learning could not readily explain, mobilizing resources for war while leaning against runaway inflation, and preparing for a postwar order from which the nightmares of the 1930s would be banished.

When he entered the White House in 1933, Roosevelt inherited a disorderly economy whose behavior was at odds with textbook teaching. At his death, he bequeathed a restructured economy – in which the role of government had been redefined – that would inspire a rewriting of the textbooks. Along the way, he was to execute more than one “U-turn” in his economic strategies. It is small wonder that this apparent disorder induced his critics to question whether Roosevelt's economic thinking was rooted in any coherent analytic perspective. His behavior also gave ammunition to those who would argue that his policies were driven solely by political opportunism.

Roosevelt never committed himself irrevocably to any single economic doctrine. He was certainly not immune, however, from intellectual influences. On the contrary, he was remarkably receptive to a broad spectrum of economic ideas. More than any of his predecessors in the American presidency, he was prepared to listen to the designs put before him by members of the economics profession.