an academic word to the wise:
be careful w/ wikipedia for citations as any ole bloke can post stuff on that site. don't get me wrong, it is great for things like dates, etc. however, i've always been very careful when attempting to cite wiki...
anyways-
i spent an entire summer studying FDR's first 100 days in office and i have a whole shelf full of stuff on this in my library...i do recall Arthur Schlesinger, Jr's book on the New Deal was a great source of information. there was another fellow, too, by the name of Frank Friedel who wrote a great deal about the New Deal. the best part about these two authors was that they used primaray resources exculsively (which is always a plus for any historian).
as far as the economics are concerend, i know that one humongous thing to come out of the depression was the FDIC. more specificly, the Federal Deposit Insurance Company. obviously, many people lost their savings when the market crashed in '29 and the FDIC was a direct result of this. another byproduct of the crash was that US banks were no longer allowed to 'speculate' or use depositors money for investing in a frivelous manner. this was a huge, huge break from what the american banking system was used to.
do a search on amazon for schlesinger and friedel and i'm sure you'll find what you;re looking for.
too bad you live all the way out in bumble-hoo Oregon Driveby...or i'd lend you my books
