When the Great Depression reached rock bottom in the winter of 1932-33, there were not many American models of a government ade- quate to deal with the catastrophic economic crisis.
During the 1920s, the State had been responsible for some promo- tion of agriculture; a scattering of targeted subsidies for emerging in- dustries such as oil, airlines, radio; a tariff designed to protect influential business sectors. But federal policy had no significant influ- ence upon the economy, upon science...