New Deal History: Revisited & Revised

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

• New Deal photographs continue to be relevant in West Virginia and beyond.

  • December 18, 2020

  By Betty Rivard, Charleston, WV New Deal Photographs of West Virginia – 1934-1943, West Virginia University Press, October 2012. Over 1500 documentary photographs were taken by ten professional photographers in West Virginia between 1934 and 1943.  These photographs continue to be exhibited, published, and referenced in discussions to this day. Beginning in 2006, the West ...
• On My Way to Somewhere Else: Woodlawn Park in Ligonier, Indiana, by Glory-June Greiff

  • April 30, 2020

  A few months ago I was in Noble County in northeastern Indiana, wearing one of my other hats, giving a presentation at a remote state park, one that came into the system after the New Deal. Fully half of Indiana’s state parks and all but two of its state forests ...
• New mural unveiled at Barnesville Post Office in Ohio

  • April 6, 2020

  A reproduction of a New Deal mural was recently unveiled at the Barnesville Post Office in Ohio. Painted by local artist Twyla Fisher and commissioned by the Belmont County Historical Society, the mural is a replacement for the original Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA) mural by Cleveland artist Michael Sarisky ...
• The Orange County Register Reports: Historic Sewage Digester Building in Laguna Beach Might be Saved

  • January 26, 2020

  Laguna Beach Water treatment tower was built in 1935. Photo by Photo: Charles Swaney © Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2013. The Orange County Register writes that a prominent family has offered to save from demolition the historic sewage digester building at entrance to Laguna Beach. Last year, the Living New Deal raised awareness about Laugna Beach resident's ...
• Unsung Hero of the New York City New Deal

  • December 30, 2019

  Aymar Embury II - Orchard Beach - Bronx. Photo by Frank da Cruz. Aymar Embury II, prolific Architect of the New Deal in New York City, created some of the City's best known features, and nobody knows. To find out more about Embury's built legacy read this essay by Living New Deal ...
• 2020 New Deal Legacy calendar

  • November 29, 2019

  By Evan Kalish The 2020 New Deal Legacy calendar highlights another dozen fantastic projects undertaken by various agencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. This year's collection takes us all across the country, from the Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands) to the Northwest—and everywhere in-between. It includes magnificent artwork and gorgeous Art Deco ...
• The New Deal Didn’t Create Segregation

  • June 19, 2019

  Housing segregation, like racism in general, has deep roots in American society. It wasn’t imposed by the federal government — and certainly not by the New Deal. Richard A Walker, Living New Deal Director in an interview with the Jacobin. ...
• New Book: Women and the Spirit of the New Deal

  • June 18, 2019

  Women and the Spirit of the New Deal highlights the extensive role of women in the programs and operations of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  It was prepared for a two-day conference, “Women and the Spirit of the New Deal,” held in Berkeley, California on October 5-6, ...
• Recently Published Monograph: New York Recentered

  • May 10, 2019

  Kara Murphy Schlichting's new book, New York Recentered, examines the development of modern New York, including its New Deal history. New York Recentered offers a new model for understanding the invention of metropolitan New York during the city’s unprecedented expansion between 1840 and 1940. By broadening the definition of planning and playing close ...
• Book on the work of the CCC in Indiana - The History of the Indiana State Forests

  • April 21, 2019

  The History of the Indiana State Forests Edited by Ronald V. Morris and Glory-June Greiff | Photography by Glory-June Greiff   Most states have a department of natural resources, but the structure and hierarchy varies from state to state. In addition to state parks, fish and wildlife areas, recreation areas, and nature preserves–whose ...