Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Grand Designby John Dos Passos
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. John dos Passos was a writer of a very realistic stamp, and, for an American, liberal views. This is a book set in the period of FDR's New Deal, and explores the difficulties of providing social programs in the face of careerism. His underlying critique of unrestricted capitalism has altered to a more centrist view. The prose though sometimes non-linear, remains of a high order. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Distinctions
John Dos Passos's literary response to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, The Grand Design critiques the gargantuan growth of bureaucracy in Washington during the Great Depression and World War II. The satiric novel conveys the author's frustration with federal overreach and the hollow rhetoric that sells it to the people. "War is a time of Caesars," writes Dos Passos as he laments the death of idealistic, intelligent enterprises at the desks of elitist administrators. After witnessing the Spanish Civil War claim so many well-intentioned men, he advises caution for America's New Dealers: "Some things we have learned, but not enough; there is more to learn. Today we must learn to found again in freedom our republic." No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |