New Deal Today: Policy & Politics

News items that speak to the resurgence of interest in the New Deal as a touchstone for public policy and political action today.

• “The Roosevelts” Premieres on PBS

  • September 8, 2014
  • Susan Ives

  Ken Burns’s new documentary, “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” premieres on PBS on Sunday, September 14 and runs consecutive nights through September 20. The 7-part series interweaves the stories of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt. “The Rising Road, 1933-1939,” which airs on Thursday, September 18, focuses on the New Deal, FDR’s read more
• Ken Burns' Roosevelt Documentary to Air in September

  • August 6, 2014
  • Richard A Walker

  America's greatest documentarian, Ken Burns, has finally turned his camera toward two of America's greatest presidents and their remarkable family.  The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is a seven part, fourteen hour long reflection on the Teddy Roosevelt (TR), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), Sara and Eleanor Roosevelt and others of this read more
• The CCC at Blue Hills Reservation, Massachusetts

  • July 3, 2014
  • Richard A Walker

  Kevin Gillis, a student at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, recently discovered that his grandfather worked as a CCC boy in the Blue Hills Camp near Boston, building trails in what is one of the Boston area's most popular parks.  He also found that there is a woeful absence of signage indicating read more
• Living New Deal California Salons

  • May 26, 2014
  • Richard A Walker

  With a grant from the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the Living New Deal will host a series of public conversations about the legacy of the New Deal. The five salons will be held at cultural institutions throughout California. New Deal scholars Harvey Smith, Gray Brechin, and Alex Tarr read more
• National New Deal Treasure: The Search For Lost Art

  • April 17, 2014
  • Richard A Walker

  National Public Radio's Brian Naylor recently offered this terrific – but unsettling – piece about  all the art gone missing from the New Deal era, and the federal government's effort to recover it.   So if anyone sees a suspicious tag at an antique shop....! New Deal Treasure: Government Searches For read more
• Sale of Limited Edition Print to Benefit the Living New Deal

  • February 28, 2014
  • Alex Tarr

    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 read more
• Opposition Growing to Post Office Sell Off

  • January 29, 2014
  • Susan Ives

  Popular opposition to the sale of America’s historic post offices is gathering momentum; Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced HR 466, urging the U.S. Postal Service to halt all sales of historic postal buildings across the country. Earlier this month Lee and Rep Jose Serrano (D-NY) added a rider to an read more
• Plummer Park Landmark Remains at Risk [UPDATE]

  • January 16, 2014
  • Harvey Smith

  The City Council in West Hollywood, California is pushing an ill-conceived plan to demolish the Plummer Park Community Clubhouse, built by the WPA in 1938. Preservationists had nominated the building to the National Register of Historic Places, but the City Council opposed it. One councilmember went so far as to

  The City Council in West Hollywood, California is pushing an ill-conceived plan to demolish the Plummer Park Community Clubhouse, built by the WPA in 1938. Preservationists had nominated the building to the National Register of Historic Places, but the City Council opposed it. One councilmember went so far as to read more
• Bethesda Post Office Mural Saved

  • December 10, 2013
  • Richard A Walker

  The old Bethesda Post Office, built by the WPA in 1938, was recently closed and sold to a private developer – a story that is all too common today (see Save the Post Office). But the prominent mural by Robert Gates, who later became head of the Art Department at American read more
• The Fight to Save Eugene's Civic Stadium

  • December 3, 2013
  • Richard A Walker

  Friends of Civic Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, are trying to raise $1.2 million by mid-January to do repair and maintenance on the stadium, built 75 years ago by the WPA. By raising the money, they hope to persuade the Eugene City Council to purchase the stadium from its current owner, read more