In 1989, Gary Gerstle and Steven Fraser edited The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, a collection of essays that provided a much-needed framework (and name) for an era bookended by Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and defined by the ideas and political networks of a liberal, reform-oriented Democratic Party. Anchored by the voting power of labor unions and dedicated to the progressive potential of a strong federal government, the New Deal Order defined post-WWII America until Reagan's election in 1980.
Now Gerstle is back with new co-editors to update what we know about the New Deal Order in light of new research that both challenges and deepens the essays in the original volume but also urges us to think more intentionally about what replaced the New Deal Order. The result is another important synthesis of twentieth-century US history with another much-needed framework, this time for the “Neoliberal...