New Deal History: Revisited & Revised

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

• Library of Congress Symposium Celebrates the Federal Writers’ Project

  • July 20, 2023

  The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), a unique New Deal program begun in 1935, provided jobs to thousands; published scores of books (including the celebrated WPA American Guide series); kickstarted the careers of such legendary authors as Richard Wright and May Swenson; and collected oral histories from immigrants and formerly enslaved ...
• Favorite New Deal Site: H.J. Patterson Hall, University of Maryland, College Park

  • July 19, 2023

  Tell Us About Your Favorite New Deal Site Working from “Home”H.J. Patterson Hall, University of MarylandCollege Park, Maryland My office in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland is in H.J. Patterson Hall, a Georgian-style, red brick building that offers a panoramic view of the campus. The ...
• Staged in Stone

  • July 17, 2023

  Open air theatres, from the modest 350-seat amphitheater in John Hinkel Park in Berkeley California, built of salvaged concrete by Civil Works Administration workers, to the internationally famous 9,000-seat Red Rocks Amphitheater above Denver— probably the greatest single project of the Civilian Conservation Corps—continue to provide live entertainment to millions of ...
• The 1927 Vermont Floods and the Dams the CCC crews built

  • July 16, 2023

  The Vermont Digger published a story by Mark Bushnell about the dams built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont. The flood that affected Vermont last week was labeled a once-a century event. We are reminded that a similar storm—also a once-in-a-century event—hit Vermont almost a century ago. In 1927, Vermont ...
• Lincoln Financial Field

  • July 16, 2023

  Lincoln Financial Field, "The Linc", on Pattison Avenue between 11th and South Darien streets in South Philadelphia (and part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex), is the present home field of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles.The team's name and eagle logo came from the symbol of the National Recovery ...
• A New Deal for Dalhart: Reviving a Rural Texas Town

  • May 30, 2023

  “The thirties began in economic depression and in drought. The first of these disasters usually gets all the attention, although for many Americans living on farms, drought was the more serious problem,” Donald Worster wrote in his 1979 Bancroft Prize-winning chronicle, Dust Bowl. This could not be truer than in ...
• Favorite New Deal Site: Charles S. Farnsworth County Park

  • May 30, 2023

  Tell Us About Your Favorite New Deal Site Spectacularly Unpretentious: Charles S. Farnsworth County ParkAltadena, California I discovered this beloved 15-acre park in the foothills of the San GabrielMountains soon after moving to Altadena eight years ago. I was struck by the hand-laidstonework installed by young men from the CCC camp at nearby Earl Canyon. Between1933-34, ...
• When the Dust Settled

  • May 30, 2023

  When the Dust Settled On April 14, 1935, known as “Black Sunday,” a dark cloud roiled the Great Plains. The dust storm carried 300 million tons of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas east to the Atlantic Ocean. A decade-long drought, overgrazing and poor farming practices dried up 100 million acres of prairie, ...
• Growing up Roosevelt, A Conversation with Anna Eleanor Seagraves

  • May 25, 2023

  Since 2005, when The Living New Deal began the work of documenting the New Deal’s achievements across the country, we’ve been fortunate to have members of the Roosevelt family on our team. Descendants of FDR and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt have advised and supported our organization from the start. Several ...
• A New Deal for Youth

  • April 28, 2023

  Sources disagree over how much First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had to prod her husband to establish the National Youth Administration (NYA). However, there is no question that Mrs. Roosevelt was deeply troubled over the plight of the nation’s youth—that they might become another stranded or lost generation. This fear, moreover, ...