 Our New Deal ancestors found work, hope and resilience during the hardest of times. Even as they built the infrastructure that would underpin modern America, they studied the technologies and cultures of those who came before, as we must do now. In the face of climate change, jobs, hope, and resilience can again be found in rebuilding our nation and restoring the environment. A new New Deal must be environmentally just and inclusive. These—and other hard-won lessons from the past can show us the way forward.
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By Gray Brechin
New Deal archaeology radically transformed our understanding of America’s past. Within just a decade, the Roosevelt Administration catapulted the profession of archaeology into the future, leaving a trove of artifacts and field notes that researchers continue to mine eighty years on. READ MORE
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 Forging an Environmentally Just CCC
By Neil Maher
Much like its 1930s predecessor, the Civilian Conservation Corps, Biden’s proposed Civilian Climate Corps would put unemployed Americans to work conserving natural resources, but also undertake projects aimed at the most urgent environmental problem of our generation: climate change. To succeed, the program must also be environmentally and socially equitable. READ MORE
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Richard Walker, Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley and Director of the Living New Deal and Living New Deal Project Historian Brent McKee will discuss the built environment of the nation’s capital as featured in the Living New Deal’s new map and guide to “Public Works and Art of the New Deal in Washington DC."
FREE. LEARN MORE
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 Roosevelt House at Hunter College and Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project
Now Online “A Lens on FDR’s New Deal”
A digital exhibition of photographs by Arthur Rothstein
At age 20, New York photographer Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985) began documenting the Great Depression. An exhibit of his images from this era covers such topics as agricultural workers, housing, race relations, refugees and what it means to be American. LEARN MORE
The photo exhibit is on view at Roosevelt House until Dec 24 by reservation. For information: [email protected]
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 A Year-End Appeal from the Living New Deal
Interest in the New Deal Is Growing and So Are We!
Through our research, public programs, publications and ever-expanding website, the Living New Deal is shining a light on what the New Deal achieved and lessons for a new New Deal today. Your generosity makes our work possible. Please donate.
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
New framework bolsters Biden's hand as climate summit begins
The plan would spend at least $100 billion to address extreme weather such as wildfires, hurricanes and droughts, address “legacy pollution” in hard-hit areas and establish a Civilian Climate Corps, a New Deal-style program to create thousands of jobs building trails, restoring streams and helping prevent catastrophic wildfires.
By Matthew Daly, AP
The Washington Post, October 31, 2021
West Virginia Stands to Lose Out Because of Manchin
The people of West Virginia must be puzzled by the behavior of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has thrown a monkey wrench into President Joe Biden’s effort to get his ambitious Build Back Better legislation through Congress.
By Richard Walker
Charleston Gazette-Mail, October 21, 2021
How Biden’s Economic Plan Compares to FDR’s New Deal
The $3.5 trillion plan Biden proposed amounts to roughly $350 billion per year over ten years—about 1.5% of the country’s current $22.7 trillion GDP. The share of federal social-welfare spending hit a New Deal-era peak of 3.6% of GDP in 1939, according to Price Fishback, a professor at the University of Arizona who studies New Deal political economy.
By Penelope Mason
News Nation, USA, October 2, 2021
When Democrats Go Small, They Lose Big
If Democrats allow corporate-aligned centrists to downsize the budget plan, abandoning FDR’s legacy, they will lose not just the battle but the war.
By John Nichols
The Nation, September 30, 2021
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“Judge parties and candidates, not merely by what they promise, but by what they have done, by their records in office, by the kind of people they travel with, by the kinds of people who finance and promote their campaigns. By their promoters ye shall know them.”
— FDR, 1938
In Case You Missed It
A 1930s Works Program Spelled HOPE For Millions Of Jobless Americans
By Ron Elving, NPR, April 4, 2020
Few episodes in American government have left as permanent an imprint on the national memory. And perhaps none has left so much of a visible legacy on the American landscape. The program literally left its initials everywhere it went — on bridges and overpasses, at airports and water treatment facilities, at schools and libraries and public structures of all kinds, you will find the letters WPA enshrined on plaques and cornerstones.
YOUR DONATIONS KEEP THE NEW DEAL SPIRIT ALIVE.
The Living New Deal thanks you for your generous support!
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Capital Hill Restoration Society
