"Beginning as early as 1890, a combination of intellectual and institutional developments - from the emergence of the social sciences as a guide to rational management to the reform efforts of the 1920s - prepared the way for the creation of the National Resources Planning Board (NRPB) in 1933.". "Reagan centers much of his analysis on the careers of five individuals who served on the NRPB during its ten years of existence: city and regional planner Frederic A. Delano: political scientist Charles E. Merriam; economist Wesley Clair Mitchell; business leader Henry S. Dennison; and philanthropic manager Beardsley Ruml.". "Although abolished by Congress in 1943, the NRPB remains a symbol not only of New Deal hopes and ambitions but of an enduring if ambivalent American faith in professional social and economic management."--BOOK JACKET.