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DECEMBER 2020


** A HAPPIER NEW YEAR
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On Christmas Eve for ten years running, the President and Mrs. Roosevelt hosted an annual party at the White House for staff and their families. Police, cooks, maids, butlers and office employees all were invited. The First Couple would hand out small change tokens to gifts of appreciation for their hard work. In 1934, they gave out autographed copies of the president’s book, On Our Way. Between 1935 and 1939, the gifts were pewter letter openers, mail organizers, and paperweights. In 1940, staff were given silver key chains featuring a Scottish terrier, in honor of Fala, the new “First Dog” (who reportedly had his own Christmas stocking). After the party, the Roosevelts and their guests would head outside for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree. In 1943, some of the darkest days of World War II, FDR delivered a heartening Christmas Eve Fireside Chat. “We may look forward into the future with real, substantial confidence that, however great the cost, ‘peace on earth, good will
toward men’ can be and will be realized and insured.”Read more ([link removed]) at the White House Historical Association’s website.


** A Light Went On: New Deal Rural Electrification Act ([link removed])
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** by Jonathan Shipley

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The high cost of bringing electricity to rural areas left rural residents to languish under the flickering lights of candles, gas lamps, oil lanterns. As part of the New Deal, FDR signed into law the Rural Electrification Act. Today, many in rural America are living in digital darkness—10 times more likely to lack broadband internet access than their urban counterparts. READ MORE ([link removed])


** The Case for New Deal Art ([link removed])
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** By Richard Walker

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President Roosevelt and his circle believed in the value of the public realm and public service, so they made government investment in public goods such as parks, schools and civic buildings a pillar of the New Deal. Along with its immense building programs, the New Deal brought a level of government support for public art never seen before-–or since. This is reason enough to celebrate the legacy of New Deal art. READ MORE ([link removed])
HAPPENINGS
“Art and Activism: Posters for Social Change,
From the New Deal to the Green New Deal”
A Living New Deal Online Forum
Thursday, Jan 7, 2020, 5pm-6:30pm PST

Social movements have long used posters to spread the word, build solidarity and demand change. The WPA employed artists, graphic designers and printers to promote public health, tourism, education, the arts and more. Now, a new generation of activists harnesses the power of posters to demand a Green New Deal. Featuring: Ennis Carter, author, Posters for the People; Lincoln Cushing, artist, printer, poster archivist; Max Slavkin, co-founder Creative Action Network. Free. Click here to register. ([link removed])

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College
New Online Public Program
Thursday, December 17, 5pm EST via Zoom

John A. Riggs, author of High Tension: FDR's Battle to Power America, about FDR’s struggle to bring affordable power to the entire nation, in conversation with former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Free. Click here to RSVP. ([link removed])
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery
Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States
November 13, 2020 – May 23, 2021

In collaboration with the White House and the National First Ladies’ Library, this is first major exhibition to explore the historical significance of First Ladies through portraiture. The exhibit features more than 60 portraits and spans nearly 250 years. Every Eye is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States is also available online ([link removed]) .
THE NEW DEAL IN THE NEWS


** Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
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FDR: The real modern populist ([link removed])
FDR showed that populism per se is not wrong. What matters is how and for whom it is deployed as a political strategy.
By Richard Heydarian
Inquirer.net, December 1, 2020

Black party allegiance, southern strategy traced to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt ([link removed])
Until the 1930s, Black civil rights were not a high priority for the Democratic Party. Eleanor Roosevelt changed both progressive priorities and Black political allegiances by using the power of the White House for advocacy, hastening powerful changes.
By Robert Wack
Baltimore Sun, December 1, 2020

A historian on the perils of chaotic White House transitions ([link removed])
An interview with Living New Deal advisor Eric Rauchway, a historian at the University of California Davis and the author of Winter War: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the First Clash Over the New Deal ([link removed]) about the key lessons from Herbert Hoover’s disastrous transfer of power to FDR in 1933.
By Sean Illing
Vox, November 24, 2020

Biden Becomes First Presidential Candidate To Receive 80 Million Votes ([link removed])
Biden is the first presidential challenger to capture more than 50% of the popular vote while running against an incumbent since Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover in 1932. “It’s just a lot of noise going on because Donald Trump is a bull who carries his own china shop with him,” Douglas Brinkley, says presidential historian at Rice University. “Once the noise recedes, it’s going to be clear that Biden won a very convincing victory.”
By Tommy Beer
Forbes, November 24, 2020
“Once I spent two years in bed trying to move my big toe.
After that everything else seems easy.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, on his recovery after being stricken by polio in 1921.

In Case You Missed It
“A Day Which Will Live In Infamy”
On December 7, 1941, in response to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR committed the U.S. to war. Shaken but resolute, FDR dictated the speech to his secretary, then edited it himself, in pencil. It one of the most treasured documents of the era.
Watch: FDR and Pearl Harbor ([link removed])
CBS Sunday Morning (6 minutes)

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