Böcker av William J. Novak

Conventional wisdom dates the origins of activist federal government to the New Deal. William J. Novak shows that the roots run deeper. Tracing the gradual rise in demands for public-service government from the Civil War through the Progressive Era, he finds that attitudes about the role of the state changed long before FDR was in office.

This study refutes the vision of the USA's stateless past by documenting America's long history of government regulation in the areas of public safety and health, political economy and property, and morality. Challenging the myth of individualism, the author explores the commitment to public duty.