New Deal

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/18/2020
  

  An FDR-Size Executive Order for Biden

  by Thomas Geoghegan

  Joseph Biden should issue an executive order requiring federal contracts go to firms with collective bargaining agreements in place, boosting wages, strengthening organized labor, and stimulating economic recovery. 

• 
• SOURCE: Esoteric Political History
  11/3/2020
  

  When Black Voters Went Blue

  Leah Wright Rigeur discusses the process by which Black voters shifted from loyal Republicans to Democrats. 

• 
• 11/1/2020
  

  Reconsidering "Court Packing" as Restoring Governing Norms

  by Greg Bailey

  The Republicans' choice to push through Amy Coney Barrett's nomination with the backing of a minority of the country means a new Congress must consider corrective action in the name of justice and democracy.

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  10/26/2020
  

  How About Reviving the Civilian Conservation Corps?

  Joe Biden has proposed something akin to the CCC if elected: the Civilian Climate Corps. Workers would manage forests, restore ecosystems, and even remove invasive species. 

• 
• 10/25/2020
  

  FDR Was Right to Propose Enlarging the Court

  by James D. Robenalt

  Franklin Roosevelt's error in 1937 was not to propose expanding the court, it was to fail to explain and defend his popular political reasons for doing so.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  9/4/2020
  

  The Depression-Era Lessons That Can Solve Today’s Evictions Crisis

  by Anya Jabour

  Social workers and researchers Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge conducted an important study of evictions in Chicago during the Great Depression and advocated for federal support for a minimum standard of living including housing. The looming eviction crisis demands similar big thinking. 

• 
• SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
  8/31/2020
  

  Millions of Young Men Toiled in FDR’s ’Tree Army’ to Help End the Great Depression. Could it Work Again?

  Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon are introducing legislation for a revived version of the New Deal-Era Civilian Conservation Corps, seeking to create jobs in forestry, parks, and land conservation. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/21/2020
  

  Searching for America's 1930s Post Office Murals: A Photoessay

  Photographer Justin Hamel is about a quarter of the way to photographing 1,200 New Deal-era murals in post offices across the United States.

• 
• SOURCE: NBC10Boston
  8/10/2020
  

  A Public Arts Program for Racial Reconciliation? (video)

  A group of cultural organizations calls for a "New Deal" to support community arts and cultural organizations as a key part of advancing racial justice and reconciliation. 

• 
• SOURCE: The American Prospect
  7/31/2020
  

  When Henry Wallace Warned of ‘American Fascism’

  John Nichols's new book argues that Franklin Roosevelt's decision to cut loose Vice President Henry Wallace crippled egalitarian politics in the Democratic Party with lasting consequences.   

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2020
  

  The Future of American Liberalism

  Columnist David Brooks looks to historians of the New Deal era to suggest Joe Biden can succeed like FDR by offering an active but pragmatic plan to pull America out of the hole created by the coronavirus pandemic. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/3/2020
  

  Stop Worrying about Protecting ‘Taxpayers.’ That Isn’t the Government’s Job.

  by Lawrence B. Glickman

  "Taxpayerism has perverted our political culture by denying the existence of a common good — or, perhaps, more accurately, by falsely defining that good, and even freedom itself, as low taxes for the rich and for corporations."

• 
• SOURCE: LitHub
  7/29/2020
  

  Once Upon a Time, When America Paid Its Writers

  In Jason Boog’s new book, "The Deep End," he offers colorful and often grim profiles of nine Depression-era writers and connects their stories to the struggles that writers face today. Even before our current economic crisis, it was a depressingly apt comparison.

• 
• SOURCE: Newsday
  7/27/2020
  

  Wanted: A Civilian Coronavirus Corps

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  We already have a template for it: the original CCC.

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  7/22/2020
  

  A Job Guarantee Costs Far Less Than Unemployment

  The bold policy for not just weathering the crisis, but coming out better.

• 
• SOURCE: The Intercept
  7/4/2020
  

  Carl Reiner’s Life Should Remind Us: If You Like Laughing, Thank FDR And The New Deal

  Reiner’s brother saw a small ad in the New York Daily News about free acting lessons being offered in lower Manhattan by the Works Progress Administration. Reiner had never contemplated acting before in his life, but his brother insisted, so he went.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  6/29/2020
  

  A Surprising Role Model Emerges for Boris Johnson: F.D.R.

  The British prime minister, trying to regroup in the coronavirus pandemic, wants to bury Thatcherism and embark on a program of ambitious public works.

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  6/28/2020
  

  Joe Biden Wants to be the Next FDR — But that Won't be Enough to Solve our Crises

  by Matthew Rozsa

  The author argues that another New Deal will advance reform instead of the rejection of market-driven capitalism needed to address the deep problems facing America and the world. 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  6/22/2020
  

  Artists Helped Lift America out of the Great Depression. Could that Happen Again?

  Art historian Jody Patterson, an expert on public art in the 1930s, discusses the legacy of the New Deal's support for the arts and efforts to establish art as a public good. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  6/19/2020
  

  Pencil Leaners

  by Jeff Sparrow

  As Australia considers government support to artistic workers inspired by the US New Deal, important differences in context should be observed.