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2 books match the query 'Sitaraman, Ganesh'

cover of Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest

Drift and Mastery

An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest

Walter Lippmann, Introduction and notes by William E. Leuchtenburg, Foreword by Ganesh Sitaraman

University of Wisconsin Press, 2015

In 1914, a brilliant young political journalist published a book arguing that the United States had entered a period of “drift”—a lack of control over rapidly changing forces in society. He highlighted the tensions between expansion and consolidation, traditionalism and progressivism, and emotion and rationality. He wrote to convince readers that they could balance these tensions: they could be organized, efficient, and functional without sacrificing impulse, choice, or liberty. Mastery over drift is attainable, Walter Lippmann argued, through diligent attention to facts and making active choices. Democracy, Lippman wrote, is “a use of freedom, an embrace of opportunity.”
            Lippman’s Drift and Mastery became one of the most important and influential documents of the Progressive Movement. It remains a valuable text for understanding the political thought of early twentieth-century America and a lucid exploration of timeless themes in American government and politics. Distinguished historian Walter Leuchtenberg’s 1986 introduction and notes are retained in this edition.
            Ganesh Sitaraman, who has provided a foreword for this centennial edition, suggests that Lippmann’s classic still has much to say to twenty-first-century progressives. The underlying solutions for our time, he believes, are similar to those of Lippman’s era. Sitaraman contends that American society can regain mastery over drift by reforming finance and reducing inequality, by rethinking the relationship between corporations and workers, and by embracing changes in social life.
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cover of How the New Deal Was Run

How the New Deal Was Run

Edited by Sarah E. Igo and Ganesh Sitaraman

University of Chicago Press, 2027

Notable historians delve into the brass tacks of launching and sustaining federal agencies.

Critics today complain that the United States government can’t do big things, can’t do them quickly, and certainly can’t do many of them at once. The New Deal offers a striking contrast. During the 1930s, the United States created a wealth of new agencies, departments, offices, and programs—all at once and in very short order—that enabled a stunning expansion of state capacity. The question is: how?

In this illuminating collection, leading American historians explore the nuts and bolts of New Deal implementation to offer answers. From the Civilian Conservation Corps to the Rural Electrification Administration to the Securities and Exchange Commission, they uncover exactly how the New Dealers did so much so quickly. They detail the choices before state builders who, operating under the pressure and immediacy of the era, made decisions that had momentous consequences in the longer term.

At a time when federal agencies are under stress as never before, the contributors suggest what future administrations can learn from the New Deal’s extraordinary achievements—and how they can build state capacity and deliver for Americans once again.

Features contributions by W. Tanner Allread, Mary Bridges, Brent Cebul, Sarah E. Igo, Meg Jacobs, Richard R. John, Neil M. Maher, Sharon Ann Musher, Sarah T. Phillips, Kathryn Olmsted and Eric Rauchway, Alex Platt, Jason Scott Smith, Ganesh Sitaraman, Abby Spinak, Chloe Thurston, and Mason B. Williams.

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