This classic study chronicles the revolution in fiscal policy that occurred in the United States between the administrations of Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy. Unforeseen by any economist or school of economists, this period witnessed the doctrine of balancing the budget give way to the principle of managing government expenditures and taxes to ensure stability and growth.

With his characteristic wit and authority, the author vividly relates how the thinking and decisions of the leading participants interacted with changing conditions, objectives, and experience to produce this major change of policy. Kenneth Boulding said that this is the "kind of book that is all too rare" - "well-written and beautifully documented.".

In addition to the complete text of the original 1969 edition, this volume includes a new introduction by the author covering the past twenty years (studied in greater detail in his Presidential Economics: The Making of Economic Policy from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond).