New Deal History: Revisited & Revised

News items that discuss and rethink the New Deal and its impact on America.

• Some CCC Boys Who Went on to Bigger Things

  • June 13, 2014

  CCC notable alumni Hyman G. Rickover, 4-star Admiral, former Corps Area Commander Raymond Burr, actor, former enrollee Archie Moore, Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, former enrollee Robert Mitchum, actor, former enrolee Edward R. Roybal, politician, former enrollee Chuck Yeager, test pilot (first human to break the sound barrier), former enrollee Stan Musial, baseball player, former enrollee Walter ...
• Tracking Down WPA National Park Posters

  • June 2, 2014

  Doug Leen, a former ranger at Grand Teton National Park, took an interesting an old poster being thrown out and it led him to rediscover the source of that poster, and 14 others, created by the WPA to advertise the National Parks. It also led to Berkeley and the University of ...
• Canada's Raw Deal

  • May 4, 2014

  Harvey Smith recently came across an article on the Canadian Broadcasting System's history/learning website, Le Canada, about the Tory alternative to FDR's New Deal during the early years of the Great Depression:  involuntary work camps for  unemployed men. Such men  posed a threat of popular rebellion  in the mind of the ...
• Mark Twain Called For "A New Deal"

  • April 4, 2014

  We were recently alerted to this interesting fact about the origin of the name "The New Deal".  It seems that it came from Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee: On this day in labor history, March 22, 1886, Mark Twain gave a rousing speech in praise of the Knights of Labor at the ...
• Sale of Limited Edition Print to Benefit the Living New Deal

  • February 28, 2014

    The New Deal funded affordable housing in both rural and urban areas to resettle people displaced during the Great Depression. Over the last several years, photographer and artist Jason Reblando traveled to the three New Deal "Greenbelt Towns" -- Greenbelt, Maryland; Greenhills, Ohio; and Greendale, Wisconsin -- built by the ...
• Revisiting The Election of 1936

  • February 12, 2014

  Harvey Smith recently dug up a copy of the Democratic Party platform from the campaign of the 1936, the guideline for Franklin Roosevelt's record-breaking run for re-election.  It is an eye-opener to consider the what FDR's team hoped to accomplish and the pledges to serve the greater good of the ...
• Elvis Slept Here

  • January 30, 2014

  The federal government’s foray into urban redevelopment that began under the New Deal reshaped cities across America—with mixed success. The Public Works Administration (PWA) began clearing slums in many cities in 1934, but work was temporarily halted after a Supreme Court ruling in 1935 prevented the federal government from condemning ...
• Learning to See

  • October 24, 2013

  Historic preservationists have to have two sets of eyes: One set that sees clear-sightedly into the past and one that sees into the future. People that don’t have this duel vision look at old buildings and see just that. But those that do can’t help but visualize what that place ...
• New Book Recovers the WPA History of African-Americans in Illinois

  • October 12, 2013

  "Brian Dolinar's new book, The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers, was released this summer, and if the title sounds dated it's because the book began its long road to publication in the late 1930s but was sidelined by two formidable obstacles — World War II and a rejection letter. How ...
• Surprising Relics of the New Deal in Kansas

  • August 28, 2013

  New Deal works ranged from gigantic work projects built under the Public Works Administration to humble sewing rooms run by the Works Progress Administration, and from magnificent public monuments like the Jefferson Memorial to beautiful art works in Post Offices.  We've seen and documented an amazing array of New Deal ...