Honors College Theses

Publication Date

2017

Major

History (B.A.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Craig Roell

Abstract

In this paper I will show how the mindset of liberalism has evolved since the Great Depression. It merged with progressive movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to become a politically left ideology that intertwined with power hungry politicians who perverted liberalism and used sudden economic and social phenomena to engineer a new type of American government. One that has constantly expanded, reaching and entrenching itself further and further into the lives of Americans, starting with President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s work would be expanded in the name of progress and equality by several of his successors, such as Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. These policies failed to provide much of either. In fact they retarded progress and spread inequality as many of those of who the policies were intended to help found themselves wrapped up in webs of dependence and regulation. This paper provides insight into how such an illusion has been maintained for so long.

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