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.

• Art and Activism: Posters for Social Change

  • January 11, 2021
  • Living New Deal

  Watch the recording for Art and Activism: Posters for Social Change, a Living New Deal online forum. Social movements historically have used posters to spread the word, build solidarity and demand change. During the New Deal, the WPA employed artists, graphic designers and printers to promote public health, tourism, education, the read more
• Author Paul Baicich writes about the Green New Deal’s need for a 21st-Century CCC

  • August 13, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  Jacobin original caption: "A Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee planting a tree." Location unknown, USA, circa 1938. (Photo by FotosearchGetty Images)." Author Paul Baicich wrote for the Jacobin about the need for a 21st-Century Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Titled, “A Green New Deal Needs a 21st-Century Civilian Conservation Corps,” the piece outlines read more
• LND Board Member Eric Rauchway Published in the Guardian

  • May 20, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  Unemployed men queuing fat a soup kitchen run by the Bahai Fellowship at 203 East 9th Street, New York, circa 1930. Photograph: FPG/Getty Images Living New Deal Board Member Eric Rauchway published an essay in the Guardian. Titled, "Roosevelt's New Deal offered hope in desperate times. We can do the same read more
• Exhibit: Posters for a New Age Inspired by New Deal Art

  • March 3, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  Update: The Fri., March 6, 6-8pm – Opening Reception will take place as scheduled. We will not to serve food this event, but will provide wine, beer, and water.We will also provide soap/water and hand sanitizer.An update about the March 20 event will be posted next week. Fri., March 6, 6-8pm – Opening Reception Fri., read more
• Professor Eric Rauchway, Living New Deal Board Member, Interviewed on National Public Radio

  • February 24, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945) signs the Social Security Act, 14th August 1935. (Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images) Eric Rauchway, UC Davis Professor of History and Living New Deal Board Member, spoke about the New Deal with Kara Miller of Innovation Hub, National Public Radio. Rauchway examined how read more
• The Orange County Register Reports: Historic Sewage Digester Building in Laguna Beach Might be Saved

  • January 26, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  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 read more
• Living New Deal Mentioned in Essay by Marta Gutman

  • January 3, 2020
  • Living New Deal

  In an essay about the New Deal’s accomplishments, Marta Gutman, Professor of Architecture at CUNY and Living New Deal Associate, mentions the work of the Living New Deal Project. Click here to read Professor Gutman’s essay, titled “A Better United States.” read more
• Past Is Prologue: Oregon Murals Provide a “Teachable Moment”

  • December 11, 2019
  • Judith Kenny

  Just as the controversy over the Victor Arnautoff murals in San Francisco’s George Washington High School draws national and even international attention, New Deal era murals in the University of Oregon’s main library stir debate over public art, representations of gender and race, and conditions for an inclusive campus environment. read more
• Ten Lessons for a Green New Deal

  • December 11, 2019
  • Richard A Walker

  FDR and the New Dealers were idealists, but their genius lay in a hard-nosed pragmatism and a willingness to experiment. The Green New Deal is still mostly a set of potential policies and hoped-for outcomes.  To succeed, it needs to take seriously ten lessons from the first New Deal. Advance read more
• On the Trail of the New Deal in Yosemite National Park

  • December 11, 2019
  • John Broesamle

  Beginning in 1942, when I was a year-and-a-half old, and for years thereafter, I would spend all summer with my parents in Tuolumne Meadows in the upper reaches of Yosemite National Park. I didn’t know until four decades later that not far from our campground, hidden among the trees, was a mess read more