News
At The Living New Deal, we’ve long been tracking rumblings of a new New Deal in American political circles. So often, though, that conversation centers on the biographies and affiliations of major politicians. Over at The American Prospect, Christopher Faricy… read more
Jensen Point, a Pacific, Missouri, park overlooking famed Route 66, has reopened to the public. The site, constructed by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1770 in 1939, has been closed for the past 25 years, during which time it fell… read more
“The first thing that stopped me in my tracks was the two mosaics from 1934 that flank the building’s original doors. Then I stepped in and saw the flowered wood paneling. Finally I lifted my head and saw the faded… read more
Henry Alsberg, a journalist with a passion for social justice, directed the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project. Under his guidance, thousands of unemployed writers were hired and over one thousand books published, many of the utmost importance to preserving historical voices… read more
A film honoring the 105–year old artist Tyrus Wong recently premiered at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Tyrus attended! “Good thing we had the WPA, because otherwise a lot of artists would’ve starved to death,” says Tyrus in the… read more
After I organized Coit Tower’s 50th anniversary celebration in San Francisco in 1984, Edith Ann Hamlin and I became good friends. During the next six years, I often visited her at her studio in the Excelsior District of San Francisco…. read more
Attics sometimes become unintended archives. At the Museum of the American Indian in Novato, California, director Colleen Hicks and archeologist Teresa Saltzman made a serendipitous discovery early this year. In January 2016, they found nine models of ancient Southwestern Puebloan… read more
More than eighty years after President Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), it remains one of the most memorable of the New Deal programs. Endearingly called FDR’s “Tree Army,” the CCC was key to an unprecedented era of… read more
When the Federal Theatre Project was created in 1936 as one of the New Deal’s programs to put unemployed Americans back to work, it became a virtual national theatre. Hallie Flanagan directed the Federal Theatre Project, but different cities had their own district directors… read more
As the first election returns reached his family estate in Hyde Park, New York, on a November night in 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt leaned back in his wheelchair, his signature cigarette holder at a cocky angle, blew a smoke ring… read more
