The following is a list of critics of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

From the left (liberals to far left)

Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. Of Dutch descen ...

, American social feminist, labor activist, and social scientist *

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination i ...

, governor and senator from Louisiana; supported Roosevelt in 1932; broke and was setting up a presidential campaign on the left in 1936 *

William Lemke William Frederick Lemke (August 13, 1878 – May 30, 1950) was an American politician who represented North Dakota in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party. He was also the Union Party's presidential cand ...

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

, picked up Huey Long support in 1936 *

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian religious minister, minister, political activist, and perennial candidate for president. He achieved fame as a socialism, socialist and pacifism, pacifis ...

, frequent presidential candidate on the socialist ticket. Disagreed with Roosevelt's economic theory. *

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of Labor unions in the United States, organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers, United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. ...

, leader of mine workers and CIO; strong supporter of Roosevelt in 1936; in opposition 1940 because of Roosevelt's foreign-policy opposing Germany

From the right (conservatives, libertarians, etc.)

Politicians

John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was the 32nd vice president of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1941, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A member of the ...

, supported Roosevelt in 1932; elected vice president

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

; broke with Roosevelt in 1937 over his court packing plan. *

Carter Glass Carter Glass (January 4, 1858 – May 28, 1946) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia. He represented Virginia in both houses of United Stat ...

, senator from Virginia, came from his deathbed to the 1940 Democratic Convention to nominate Franklin Roosevelt's campaign manager

James Farley James Aloysius Farley (May 30, 1888 – June 9, 1976) was an American politician who simultaneously served as chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and United States Postmaster Gener ...

as the Democratic Party's candidate for the presidency. Glass was against Roosevelt's third term candidacy. *

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

, former leader of left-wing of Democratic Party; owned nation's largest newspaper chain; major supporter of Roosevelt in 1932, broke with Roosevelt in 1935 over Roosevelt's proposal to greatly increase taxes on the

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

s of the wealthy, and to close several tax loopholes used by the wealthy to avoid paying taxes. * Hugh S. Johnson, first head of the

National Recovery Administration The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate "cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governmen ...

(se

. Johnson fell out with Roosevelt after Roosevelt fired him in 1935. * George Peek, George N. Peek, farm leader; supported Roosevelt in 1932 *

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

, Democratic nominee for U.S. president in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

; founded American Liberty League in 1934 to attack New Deal programs as fostering unnecessary "class conflict". * Rush D. Holt, Sr., Democratic

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

n senator; opposed Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policies. *

Robert A. Taft Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority le ...

, powerful Republican senator from

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

from 1939 to 1953. Taft was the leader of the Republican Party's conservative wing; he consistently denounced the New Deal as "socialism" and argued that it harmed America's business interests and gave ever-greater control to the central government in Washington. Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Taft, a non-interventionist, vigorously opposed Roosevelt's attempts to aid Britain in World War II. *

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

, Hollywood film actor; strong New Dealer in 1940s; started opposing New Deal programs in the 1950s as a spokesman for the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

company; would later become

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

in 1980. *

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

, Republican senator from

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987; Republican nominee for U.S. president in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

Lou Henry Hoover Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was an American philanthropist, geologist, and the first lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933 as the wife of President Herbert Hoover. She was active in community organizations and v ...

* Lewis Douglas, Budget Director, 1933 * Harry F. Byrd, Democratic senator from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Frank Knox William Franklin Knox (January 1, 1874 – April 28, 1944) was an American politician, soldier, newspaper editor, and publisher. He was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936 and Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt d ...

, Republican vice presidential candidate in

; joined Roosevelt's cabinet as

Secretary of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On March 25, 2025, John Phelan was confirm ...

, 1940–44 *

Henry Stimson Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and Demo ...

, Hoover's Secretary of State; joined Roosevelt's cabinet as

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

, 1940–45 *

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee for president. Willkie appeale ...

, Republican presidential candidate in 1940; supported Roosevelt 1941–43 * Ellison D. Smith, Democratic senator from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, Roosevelt tried to defeat him for reelection 1938.

Writers and speakers

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Anderson faced many challenges in his career, frequently losing jobs for expressing his opinions or supporting ...

, playwright, American libertarian, wrote Knickerbocker Holiday (with

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

) as a satire on the New Deal which compared Roosevelt to Hitler and Mussolini. *

Charles Coughlin Charles Edward Coughlin ( ; October 25, 1891 – October 27, 1979), commonly known as Father Coughlin, was a Canadian-American Catholic Church, Catholic priest based near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Lit ...

, Irish-American Catholic priest with huge radio audience;

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

,"Coughlin, Charles Edward" in Martin J. Manning and Herbert Romerstein (eds) ''Historical Dictionary Of American Propaganda'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 , pp. 71–72 originally on the left and a Roosevelt supporter in 1932 but by 1935 Coughlin "excoriated Roosevelt as 'anti-God'". Charles Coughlin denounced Roosevelt as too moderate and demanded stronger measures against "capitalism" which he associated with "Jews". * Elizabeth Dilling,

activist, author of ''The Roosevelt Red Record and Its Background'' (1936) *

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. (trilogy), ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a ...

, novelist; formerly on the left *

John T. Flynn John Thomas Flynn (October 25, 1882 – April 13, 1964) was an American journalist best known for his opposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II. In September 1940, Flynn helped establish the America Fi ...

, journalist, author of ''The Roosevelt Myth''; formerly on the left *

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...

, economist. A spokesman for the Treasury during World War II; while supportive of relief and employment efforts and expansive monetary policy under the New Deal, Friedman was also critical of the

. *

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...

, poet * Garet Garrett, editorial writer for ''Saturday Evening Post'' *

Henry Hazlitt Henry Stuart Hazlitt (; November 28, 1894 – July 9, 1993) was an American journalist, economist, and philosopher known for his advocacy of free markets and classical liberal principles. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Hazlit ...

, writer *

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo ...

, novelist * Robinson Jeffers, poet and playwright * Alice Lee Jemison, Native American rights advocate * Rose Wilder Lane, novelist and journalist * David Lawrence, magazine columnist *

Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining t ...

newspaper columnist and political philosopher * H.L. Mencken, American journalist, essayist, magazine editor *

Raymond Moley Raymond Charles Moley (September 27, 1886 – February 18, 1975) was an American political economist. Initially a leading supporter of the New Deal, he went on to become its bitter opponent before the end of the Great Depression. Early life and ...

, former top Brain Truster * Albert Jay Nock,

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

author and social critic * Isabel Paterson, libertarian author * Westbrook Pegler newspaper columnist *

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind Frank Capra filmography#Films that won Academy Award ...

, film director, producer, and screenwriter *

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, American poet and

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

; radio broadcaster for Italian leader

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

novelist, founder of

Objectivism Objectivism is a philosophical system named and developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive a ...

and one inspiration for

libertarianism Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according t ...

. * John R. Rice, Protestant

fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishin ...

writer. *

Gerald L. K. Smith Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Disciples clergyman, politician and organizer known for his Populism, populist and Far-right politics, far-right demagoguer ...

, Huey Long second-in-command; took over "SOWM" after Long's death, went in pro-Nazi direction *

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

, novelist, poet, playwright * Mark Sullivan, newspaper columnist * James True *

DeWitt Wallace William Roy DeWitt Wallace ( ; November 12, 1889 – March 30, 1981), publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher. Wallace co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with his wife Lila Bell Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. ...

, journalist and publisher of ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' Heidenry, John. ''Theirs was the Kingdom: Lila and DeWitt Wallace and the story of the Reader's Digest''. New York, W.W. Norton, 1993. (pp. 130–35).

Organizations

* American Liberty League (1934–1940) *

Conservative coalition The conservative coalition, founded in 1937, was an unofficial alliance of members of the United States Congress which brought together the conservative wings of the Republican and Democratic parties to oppose President Franklin Delano Rooseve ...

(unofficial alliance) (1937–1994)

Books with an anti-New Deal point of view

* Alfred M. Bingham & Selden Rodman, editors, ''Challenge to the New Deal'' (1934) * Elizabeth Dilling, ''The Red Network'' (1934) * Elizabeth Dilling, ''The Roosevelt Red Record and Its Background'' (1936) *

, ''Addresses Upon the American Road, 1933–1938'' (1938) *

, ''After Seven Years'' (1939) *

, ''Addresses Upon the American Road, 1940–1941'' (1941) * Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, ''Why Centralized Government'' (1941) *

, ''The Roosevelt Myth'' (1948, revised 1952) * Garet Garrett, ''The People's Pottage'' (1951, later republished as ''Burden of Empire'' and ''Ex America'') *

Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School,Ronald Hamowy, ed., 2008, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism', Cato Institute, Sage, , p. 62: "a leading economist of the Austri ...

, '' America's Great Depression'' (1963) * James J. Martin, ''American Liberalism and World Politics, 1931–1941'' (1964) * Gary Dean Best, ''Pride, Prejudice, and Politics: Roosevelt Versus Recovery, 1933-1938'' (1990) * Garet Garrett, ''Salvos Against the New Deal: Selections from the Saturday Evening Post, 1933–1940'' (2002), edited by Bruce Ramsey * Thomas Fleming, ''The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II'' (2002) * Garet Garrett, ''Defend America First: The Antiwar Editorials of the Saturday Evening Post, 1939–1942'' (2003), edited by Bruce Ramsey * Jim Powell, ''FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression'' (2003) * Gene Smiley, ''Rethinking the Great Depression'' (2003) *

Thomas Woods Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author, podcast host, and libertarian commentator who is currently a senior fellow at the Mises Institute.Naji FilaliInterview with Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Harvard Political Review, A ...

, '' The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History'' (2004) * Robert P. Murphy, '' The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism'' (2007) * Amity Shlaes, ''The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression'' (2007) *

Jonah Goldberg Jonah Jacob Goldberg (born March 21, 1969) is an American conservative journalist, author, and political commentator. The founding editor of ''National Review Online'', from 1998 until 2019, he was an editor at ''National Review''. Goldberg writ ...

, ''Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning'' (2008) * Burton W. Folsom, Jr., ''New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America'' (2008) * Robert P. Murphy, ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal'' (2009) * George Selgin, ''False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933-1947'' (2025)

References

Other references

* Gary Dean Best; ''The Critical Press and the New Deal: The Press Versus Presidential Power, 1933–1938'' Praeger Publishers 1993
online edition
* Brinkley, Alan. ''Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression'' (1983) * Graham, Otis L. and Meghan Robinson Wander, eds. ''Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Life and Times.'' (1985), an encyclopedia
Kennedy, David M. ''Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945.'' (1999)
the best recent scholarly narrative. * Carl McCarthy. '' The Great Wisconsin Brainwash '' (1954)
McCoy, Donald * R. ''Landon of Kansas'' (1966)
standard scholarly biography * Paterson, James. ''Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert Taft'' (1972), standard biography * Ronald Radosh. ''Prophets on the Right: Profiles of conservative critics of American globalism'' (1978) * Rudolf, Frederick. "The American Liberty League, 1934–1940," ''American Historical Review'', LVI (October 1950), 19–3
online at JSTOR
* Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., ''The Age of Roosevelt'', 3 vols, (1957–1960), the classic pro-New Deal history, with details on critics. Online a
vol 2
* Smith, Richard Norton. ''An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover'' (1987) biography * White, Graham J. ''FDR and the Press''. 1979 * Winfield, Betty Houchin. ''FDR and the News Media'' 1990 * Williams, T. Harry. ''Huey Long'' (1969), Pulitzer Prize biography * Wolfskill, George. ''The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League, 1934–1940'' (1962) {{New Deal New Deal