he New Dealers owed the progressives. They have noted, too, that if much was altered in the 1930s, much too remained the same, and the basic values of the nation stayed fairly constant. Yet, in recognizing the strands of continuity, they have too often obscured the extraordinary developments of the decade (Leuchtenburg xii).
Leuchtenburg offers the view that the New Deal was a major shift in American political thinking and in the creation of a number of agencies that continued long after the 1930s. He sees these events as having the significance other historians deny, and he offers evidence of this significance. He makes good use of primary sources from the period, bringing together reports, letters, memoranda, manuscripts, first-person accounts, newspaper articles, and other evidence. He presents his narrative in a clear manner and uses footnotes which appear at the bottom of each page so the reader can more easily ascertain the source and make judgment
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