So, there seems to be a never-ending battle raging between conservatives and liberals concerning FDR, The Great Depression, and the New Deal.
Critics of Roosevelt, such as Amity Schlaes (author of a book on the subject, The Forgotten Man) and Michael Medved (who writes about it in his new book The 10 Big Lies About America), point to many metrics to show that the economy didn't really improve until the advent of World War II. One of the chief items is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA. From 1932 to 1938, it didn't go up at all...in fact it went down. This would seem to show the New Deal as a failure.
However, Roosevelt defenders have another point of view. They include historian Matthew Dallek, who wrote a column for Politico recently on the subject. He says the DJIA is the wrong metric to use, because it doesn't really give an indicator of the economy as a whole, only big business. He states that GDP is a much better metric, and it shows significant improvement from 1932 to 1938.
I'm going to research this some more and maybe try to call in to the Michael Medved show...but what do you think?