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AUGUST 2024
—Social Security Act of 1935
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 This month marks the 89th anniversary of the Social Security Act. For the first time, the US government would take responsibility for the economic security of its people—"from the cradle to the grave," as FDR envisioned at the time. Americans would enroll in the program at birth, invest in the system through a payroll tax during working years and receive lifetime benefits in old age. Polls show more than 80 percent of Americans across all income, age, ethnic groups and political affiliation support expanding Social Security. But as the political divide widens will our so-called social safety net hold?
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By Kevin Baker
The Social Security Act. It was not only the “cornerstone” of the New Deal, as FDR put it, but has proved to be what is surely the most popular government program ever adopted in the United States—and a deadly “third rail” to anyone trying to repeal it. READ MORE |
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By Susan Ives
Author, historian and champion for conservation, John Broesamie taught political and environmental history for 32 years at California State, Northridge. His passion was preserving nature, open spaces and the legacy of the CCC. READ MORE |
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 Living New Deal Webinar
with Brooke L. Blower
Thursday, September 12, 2024, 5pm PT
On February 21, 1943, Pan American Airways’ celebrated seaplane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from New York’s Marine Air Terminal and island-hopped its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving at Lisbon the following evening, it crashed in the Tagus River, killing twenty-four of its thirty-nine passengers and crew. Brooke L. Blower talks about her work reconstructing the backstories of seven worldly Americans aboard that plane—their personal histories, their diverse New Deal-era politics, and how their wartime movements shed new light on Americans’ road to World War II.
Brooke L. Blower is Associate Professor of History at Boston University and author of several publications including the award-winning Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the World Wars (2011). Brooke’s latest book is Americans in a World at War: Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am’s Yankee Clipper (2023), which received the New Deal Book Award. FREE. REGISTER
 FDR Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY
Author talk and book signing with Kevin Baker
Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 6:00 pm ET
Kevin Baker, a lifelong baseball fan, is a novelist, political commentator and journalist. He is contributing editor to and bi-monthly columnist for Harper's Magazine and a regular contributor to Politico, The New Republic, The New York Times, and The New York Times Book Review. Kevin is the director of the Living New Deal’s New York Chapter.
A free, in-person public event. Registration is required. REGISTER
LOCATION: FDR Library & Museum, Henry Wallace Center, 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY | STREAM: YouTube | Facebook
 Saint Louis Art Museum
August 2, 2024–April 13, 2025
This exhibition draws from the museum's Federal Art Project collection of prints, drawings, watercolors and paintings. Through its display of work made by African American, Asian American and female-identifying artists, this exhibition celebrates the fundamental idea of art being made by and for everyone.
LOCATION: One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, MO
 Poster House, New York, NY
September 26, 2024–February 23, 2025
The New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration (REA) brought electric power areas to remote areas with small populations where private companies refused to operate. Lester Beall was hired to create posters to advertise the REA’s work.
LOCATION: 119 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY
 Delaware Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs
Through Summer 2025
The new exhibit includes memorabilia, such as clothing and tools used by “Roosevelt’s Tree Army” as they worked in the First State and paintings Delaware artist Jack Lewis made during his time as a CCC enlistee, as well as photos and letters of CCC crew members. INFO
LOCATION: Legislative Hall, 411 Legislative Ave, Dover, DE
 San Diego History CenterAmerican artist Belle Baranceanu was a printmaker, portrait painter, muralist and teacher. This exhibition traces her experience as an artist working for all of the federal government’s art projects and demonstrates the artistic renaissance the New Deal sparked in San Diego and the rest of America. VIEW ONLINE
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 NOW AVAILABLE
A collection of essays by New Deal historians, illustrated with historical photos. Edited by Christopher N. Breiseth and David Lembeck. 110 pages. (National New Deal Preservation Association). Dedicated to Kathryn Flynn, founding director of the NNDPA, the book illustrates the power of the New Deal to transform the social contract between citizens and their government, then and now. $25.00. PURCHASE HERE
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By Kevin Baker
A would-be assassin took aim at the president elect. FDR’s fortitude at such a moment served to redouble public confidence in him—at a time when the nation seemed close to coming unstrung after three years of the Great Depression. READ MORE
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By Melanie Roller
Marrying the Mission Revival-style exterior and Art Deco interior, this New Deal post office has held true to its roots. READ MORE
Tell us about your favorite New Deal site. 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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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
How to pick the best candidate for Vice President? My grandfather, Henry A. Wallace, had experience as a vice presidential candidate in two contested Democratic conventions. One went great for him, the other not so much. But both were riveting for the nation, and both resulted in resounding victory for the ticket.
By Scott Wallace
The Daily Beast, July 26, 2024
Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, the program aims to empower the next generation to tackle global warming and its consequences by creating climate-focused career paths and focusing on historically neglected communities.
By Noah Haggerty
Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2024
A first-term president is presiding over an improving economy, but still one with severe individual hardship. His opponent is bolstered by almost unilateral support from the business community, seeking to regain its position of untrammeled dominion over American life. The president decides to use the corporate tycoons’ stated preference to frame the election, taking every opportunity to remind voters of the wealthy and powerful forces arrayed against him. The year is 1936, not 2024, and the president is Franklin Roosevelt.
By David Dayen
The American Prospect, June 14, 2024
“Freedom of Speech,” the 1943 painting by Norman Rockwell, inspired by FDR’s "Four Freedoms” speech, has taken on a viral life of its own.
By Charles W. McFarlane
The New York Times, July 3, 2024
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 The Living New Deal is constantly posting new, timely content to our website.
WATCH: Hidden Stories of the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project
A Living New Deal webinar about the Public Works of Art Project (1933-34), a five-month pilot program that hired 3,749 unemployed artists, produced 15,663 artworks, and led to the creation of even larger artist unemployment relief programs that made the U.S. government the single largest patron of contemporary art in the world.
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"The value of truth and sincerity is always stronger than the value of lies
and cynicism."
— FDR, April 15, 1940
Address before the Pan American Governing Board
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Lone Gunman
