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Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies Toward Small Businesses, 1936-1961. By Jonathan J. Bean Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xiv + 281 pp. Notes, bibliography, illustrations, and index. $45.00. ISBN 0-8078-2296-5.
In 1942, as the United States rapidly geared up for war production, President Franklin Roosevelt noted with some asperity that "This Small Business problem has baffled me . . . for two years. We have not met it-and I am not sure that it can be met" (p. 43). The curious course of federal policy regarding small enterprise does not baffle Jonathan Bean, but his ultimate judgment largely accords with FDR's final phrase. In this able review of repeated efforts by Congressional activists to fashion effective defenses, supports, and incentives for American small business, Bean documents the disappointing results of government statutes and programs across the decades from the New Deal to the Fair Deal through what might be termed the "Keep Dealing" Eisenhower years. Four dilemmas animate the narrative. Although Americans retained a sentimental attachment to the ideology of small business as representing independence and initiative, they voted with their dollars for the cheaper prices offered by retail chains and efficiency-devoted large manufacturers. Legislative advocates ("political entrepreneurs") readily gathered their colleagues' support for various measures by employing "crisis" rhetoric envisioning...