News
Imagine the U.S. without the New Deal, and you’ll get something like the 19th century. Not the Hollywood version, mind you, but a nation of often impassable country roads and unpaved city streets; fetid rivers, lakes, and beaches reeking of… read more
The New Deal’s legacy surrounds us but its overall impact both then and today goes largely unrecognized. Some states have museums dedicated to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and a few New Deal buildings serve as museums. But there is… read more
Thousands of post offices stand to be converted to condos, restaurants, and real estate offices, or demolished to cover the Postal Service’s largely manufactured deficit. Those that rely on the post office are protesting the disappearance of this still-vital public service,… read more
The University of California, Berkeley, mistakenly sold a masterwork by WPA sculptor Sargent Johnson for $150. The 22-foot-long redwood carving, reportedly valued at around a million dollars, had been misplaced and sold as surplus. In March, the Berkeley City Council… read more
“A Voice: What Can a Voice Change? Everything,” was the theme of the 32nd Annual Steinbeck Festival, held May 3-6 at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. A celebration of the work of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, the… read more
San Francisco’s Coit Tower is known around the world. Inside are 27 WPA murals by 25 artists that depict life in California during the 1930s. Decades of neglect threaten the murals. Although the landmark generates more than enough revenue for… read more
University of Missouri, Kansas City, Economics professor John Henry (a honorable name in its own right) writes that the federal government can – and should – create jobs, just as it did under the New Deal. See Prof. Henry’s remarks… read more
Maine’s Republican Governor, Paul LePage, recently ordered the removal of a mural in the state Department of Labor that he considered too ‘biased’ toward workers. The mural is of recent origin, but the precedent is not good for the many… read more
In the corner of a 100-square-foot mural painted on a wall of Coit Tower, Ruth Gottstein is forever memorialized. Just 12 years old in the painting, she has a short, pageboy haircut, and soft, thoughtful eyes. She’s clutching a notebook,… read more
An unexpected benefit from the recent sale of the old Modesto P.O. is that a story about the sale and missing murals in the Modesto Bee triggered the memory of a reader who recalled seeing two such artworks in a family storage… read more
