During one of the most significant periods of twentieth century America, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. sought to hypothesize the elements of American politics that allowed the United States to escape the Great Depression of 1929, Roosevelt's New Deal, and fight the second world's war, without the federal government becoming a dictatorship. Schlesinger found the essence of American politics was "in an enduring contest between the business class, conservative, and those who have sought to restrain its power, liberal. The conservative and liberal battles create a conflict in the American social classes, and Schlesinger believed this class conflict to be the factor that saved America. Schlesinger illustrates his point with Jacksonians bank war and the hard money policy of 1836. Alexander Hamilton's model bank, The Second Bank of the United States, charter was to expire in 1836. The bank was a monopoly that was administered by a few men, and this handful of men controlled America's currency, credit, and price levels. The Jacksonians react to the threat that the rich and powerful stand to inherit all the wealth and power, so the Jacksonians represent the "humble" and "honest" laborers who, Schlesinger suggests, stand to lose their political equality. The hard money policy was conceived from Jackson's bank war and was as the alternative to the conservative system of economic theory and to exclude the banks control of the currency. The hard money policies are credited, by Schlesinger, for significantly revamping American politics "economically: by preventing periodic depressions; politically: by preventing the rise of a tyrannical powers that would rival the governments authority; and socially: by preventing the rule of aristocracy that would exploit the working class." Schlesinger, himself a liberal democrat, does give a very convincing argument that the Jacksonian liberals played a part in the quick economic recovery from the Great Depression.