Vacation, Summer Reading and The Forgotten Man

Well, I got back from my beach vacation in Florida last night after driving for over 13 hours–including a stop through McDonough, Georgiaa href=”http://instapundit.com/archives2/006912.php” where we found this unusual Chik-fil-A diner./a I spent most of the time at the beach sitting under an umbrella with lots of sunscreen catching up on some reading material that I had put aside to take. I started out with some lighter reading with my very first issue of a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O1PKOG?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=B000O1PKOG”emGarden Gun/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=B000O1PKOG” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / that I ordered after a href=”http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2007/05/when-you-get-outside-of-new-york-city.html”hearing about the name /aand reading up on it in emThe New York Times./em The magazine is very asthetically pleasing, with glossy photos and interesting articles such as “Hemingway’s Cuba” and “Southern Swell” about women who surf. My only criticism is that there are too many advertisements for my taste but I suppose that is par for the course these days in any magazine.br /br /The book that I spent most of my time reading is the one that I am holding in the picture below, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0066211700?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0066211700″emThe Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0066211700″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / by Amity Shlaes, a journalist and economics reporter. If you have an interest in understanding more about the New Deal than what you hear about in the media, Shlaes provides a terrific reinterpretation of the Great Depression. “She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920’s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of the New Deal programs. The real question of the Depression, she argues, in not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II but why the Depression lasted so long.” Did government intervention play a part in making it last longer? Our current entitlement mentality and expectations that the government will provide is based, I think, in large part on the New Deal. The book gave me more perspective and understanding of how this change in mentality took place in our country and how important it is to be aware of the flaws of government intervention into every problem. I think our current desire to embrace universal healthcare is another mistake waiting to happen, but that is a whole other issue. This book is definitely more than just beach reading, it is a detailed and fascinating study of an important part of our nation’s history. br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6XsGr86A1rs/RpEDpxijgCI/AAAAAAAAABg/ApwyB2EwMjQ/s1600-h/helenamity.jpg”img style=”float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6XsGr86A1rs/RpEDpxijgCI/AAAAAAAAABg/ApwyB2EwMjQ/s400/helenamity.jpg” border=”0″ width=200 alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084849470485790754″ //a