The New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), begun in 1935, employed more than 10,000 out-of work writers, editors, art critics, researchers and historians. Women made up forty percent of the workforce, including as state directors. It hired now-renowned African American writers. The FWP’s founding director, Henry Alsberg, was a journalist, a Jew and a suspected Communist. A group of conservative business men complained to FDR that the Project was "dominated by Communist sympathizers.” A censor was installed at the FWP’s central office to police for "subversive” material. The chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Rep. Martin Dies, claimed that one-third of the FWP's members were Communists. Alsberg was called to testify, then fired. The FWP was dissolved and nearly erased from the public's mind. Until now.
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By Susan DeMasi
The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) provided jobs to thousands; published scores of books; kickstarted the careers of such legendary authors as Richard Wright and May Swenson; and collected oral histories from immigrants and formerly enslaved people. In June, a symposium at the Library of Congress, “ Rewriting America: Reconsidering the Federal Writers’ Project 80 Years Later,” celebrated the FWP’s legacy, continued influence and possible renewal. READ MORE |
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By Susan Gervasi
The annual Utopia Film Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland, showcases films on such themes as community building, cultural diversity, social and economic concerns and environmental issues. In honor of the New Deal’s 90th Anniversary, the festival will present the “New Deal Spirit Award,” in recognition of independent films that reflect the ideals of the New Deal. READ MORE |
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Saturday, November 11, 2023, 5:30pm-8pm
Join the Living New Deal, San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and National Park Service in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the New Deal at one of its Crown Jewels—the San Francisco Maritime Museum, hailed during its construction by the WPA as the “Palace for the People."
Free guided afternoon tours of the building and its murals, sculptures and mosaics produced the Federal Art Project.
An evening champagne reception with live music, refreshments and special guests, The Honorable Charles Breyer and Historian Dr. Gray Brechin and more! INFORMATION AND TICKETS
LOCATION: 900 Beach Street, San Francisco
 California Map Society and the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University
California Map Society Conference
Saturday, August 19, 2023, 10:00am-4:30pm PDT
A public conference of map, history, art and science lovers features Living New Deal founder Dr. Gray Brechin and others discussing historical and modern-day mapping. FREE .
LOCATION: David Rumsey Map Center, 557 Escondido Mall, Green Library, Stanford, CA REGISTER
 Boston Public Library in Copley Square
"The 90th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Civilian Conservation Corps"
Thursday, September 7, 2023, 6-7pm EDT
The CCC reshaped Massachusetts’s state-owned forests, from Cape Cod to the New York border. Author Marty Podskoch will discuss the history and legacy of Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” and its imprint on the Bay State. FREE . RESERVATIONS
LOCATION: 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
 Frances Perkins Center
HOMESTEAD TOURS
Weekly Tours: Thursdays, Fridays and Select Saturdays through October 14. 10:00am – 2:00pm, on the hour.
A National Historic Landmark, the Frances Perkins Center offers guided tours highlighting the site’s history as a working farm, brickyard and home to generations of the Perkins family, including Frances Perkins, considered the woman behind the New Deal.
LOCATION: 478 River Road, Newcastle, ME
Reservations: [email protected], (207) 563-3374 |
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Many Americans viewed the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's active public life “with mingled admiration and alarm,” according to one reporter at the time. An Atlanta couple sent a telegram to FDR:
“MR. PRESIDENT WOULD YOU PLEASE SUGGEST THAT MRS. ROOSEVELT CONFINE HER DUTIES MORE TO THE WHITE HOUSE.” READ MORE
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Tell Us About Your Favorite New Deal Site
 Working from “Home”
H.J. Patterson Hall, University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
By Edward R. Landa
The building, named for Harry J. Patterson, the University’s president from 1913-1917, was constructed in 1934 in a cost-sharing arrangement with the Public Works Administration (PWA). Among “HJP’s" most famous inhabitants was Jim Henson, Class of 1960, who went on to create the famed Muppets of Sesame Street. READ MORE
Send us a first-person story of 100 (or so) words about your favorite New Deal site and why you chose it. Send your submissions to [email protected]. Thanks!
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The Showdown: FDR vs the Supreme Court
In her new book, FDR’s Gambit: The Court Packing Fight and the Rise of Legal Liberalism, historian Laura Kalman writes of the one time in the past century when the number of justices on the court seemed likely to change: when FDR, in the midst of his epic clash with the federal judiciary over the fate of the New Deal, tried and failed to increase the number of seats on the court.
By John Fabian Witt
The Nation, June 27, 2023
1936, a Year for the Worker: Labor Action and the Reelection of Franklin D. Roosevelt
American workers did not simply wait on government to deal with the economic crisis of the Great Depression, they chose to act. Strikes and protests achieved major gains for American workers and set the stage for organized labor’s contribution to the struggle against fascism in World War II.
By Jason Dawsley
National World War II Museum, July 13, 2023
The Supreme Court’s Latest Ruling Against Unions is Really Aimed at the New Deal
By targeting labor law and the much-maligned administrative state, the justices showed that rolling back workers’ rights is just one tactic in their larger war.
By Ruben J. Garcia
Washington Monthly, June 8, 2023
To Save US Democracy, Tax the Rich at 90%
Wealthy people in America screamed and yelled when FDR said he would do it, claiming a hike from 25% to 90% would crash the economy, but instead that top tax rate kicked off the first middle class to encompass more than half a nation’s population in world history.
By Thom Hartman
Common Dreams, June 3, 2023
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“The promptness with which you seized the opportunity to engage in honest work, the willingness with which you have performed your daily tasks and the fine spirit you have shown in winning the respect of the communities in which your camps have been located, merits the admiration of the entire country.”
— FDR, radio message to CCC enrollees, April 17, 1936
YOUR DONATIONS KEEP THE NEW DEAL SPIRIT ALIVE.
The Living New Deal thanks you for your generous support!
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