What does a kitchen table have to do with American exceptionalism? Between 1936 and 1942, the Federal Art Project (FAP) sent four hundred artists into 36 states to paint the objects comprising everyday life in a large, diverse nation. They… read more
To celebrate the 100th birthday of the national parks, the Creative Action Network (CAN) produced “See America,” a collection of contemporary national park posters inspired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The hardcover book is the brainchild of CAN co-founders… read more
On Black Sunday, April 14, 1935 a cloud two hundred miles wide carrying more than 300,000 tons of topsoil blackened the skies over the Great Plains. People lost their way as the wall of darkness rolled in; stores and schools… read more
The 80th anniversary of the WPA has awakened interest, both academic and popular, in the New Deal’s legacy, including the development of some 800 state parks throughout the United States, courtesy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). To honor and… read more
During the Great Depression, FDR’s administration allocated $27 million ($469 million in 2015 dollars) to art projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, putting some forty thousand unemployed artists of all stripes to work. Sharon Ann Musher’s Democratic Art: The… read more
Nature’s New Deal makes the connection between conservation and politics in the U.S., using the Civilian Conservation Corps as the sturdy bridge between them. Maher traces the competing visions that shaped American conservation—one advanced by Gifford Pinchot, the first chief… read more
For anyone seeking out the finest examples of the New Deal, no road trip is complete without a copy of Our Mark on This Land. In the manner of the Federal Writers’ Project guides to the states, Helen and Ren… read more
Most analysts of the conservative revolution begin with the aftermath of the failed Goldwater presidential campaign. Kim Phillips-Fein goes further back: to the reaction of some American businessmen to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. If Invisible Hands’ subtitle leads you to… read more
Today, one of the biggest trends in American cities is the revival of urban agriculture, including a rash of suburban homeowners tearing out their grassy yards to plant edible gardens. There is a cottage industry in “urban homesteading” books and… read more
Harvey Smith’s Berkeley and the New Deal is an eye opener. Like many of Arcadia Publishing’s books, its focus is on local history, richly illustrated with photographs. But Berkeley and the New Deal tells a bigger story. Smith has written… read more
Curtis Roosevelt, the grandson of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, has written a highly personal account of his life around the First Family. Growing up in such rarified atmosphere cannot have been easy. That Curtis holds such vivid memories of early… read more
Did we in 2008 elect another Franklin Roosevelt or another Herbert Hoover? This wonderfully comprehensive analysis of the New Deal’s response to the Great Depression and the Obama Administration’s response to the Great Recession addresses that question. This anthology, edited by… read more
In 1923 Los Angeles police arrested the American author, socialist Upton Sinclair, for publicly reading the Bill of Rights, which they deemed radical. Four decades later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights that to many today… read more
Susan Quinn recounts a fast-paced story about the Federal Theatre Project through the lives and times of those who conceived and led this unique New Deal relief program— Harry Hopkins, the driven director of the WPA, and the intrepid Hallie… read more
Building the roads, bridges, and other infrastructure that became the hallmark of the WPA was considered “men’s work.” But by 1935, with millions of women heading households and on relief, the WPA sought jobs for them, too. Young women were… read more