Does History Repeat Itself?

What George Santayana said is often misquoted: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." [Santayana, George. (1906). The Life of Reason or the Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 284]

You may read the entire book on Google books if you like.

Shortly after the presidential election, Time Magazine published an issue with Barack Obama on the cover, depicted as the new FDR of the "New New Deal." Some of the similarities are eery.

Last year I read The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes, and blogged about it here. Now, nearly eight months into President Obama's administration, it is easier to see the parallels. I was not alive during FDR's New Deal, but the people who lived through that period, have told me a story that coincides with Schlaes' viewpoint, that it was not the spending that revived the US economy, but rather our entrance into World War II.

Though the graphic of the 1934 cartoon from the Chicago Tribune is now clean, it is easy to spot the similarities between then and now. My thanks to Chuck Johnston for pointing out this cartoon.