How the New Deal Was Run
How the New Deal Was Run
Publication supported by the Meijer Foundation Fund
Notable historians delve into the brass tacks of launching and sustaining federal agencies.
Critics regularly complain that the United States government can’t do big things. While their explanations differ, there is now a growing sense that American institutions are not delivering solutions to the problems of our time. The New Deal offers a striking contrast. During the 1930s, the United States created a wealth of new agencies, departments, offices, and programs—and in very short order.
This illuminating collection brings together leading American historians to offer fifteen detailed accounts of how this remarkable expansion of state capacity actually happened. From the Civilian Conservation Corps to the Rural Electrification Administration to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the authors dig into the nuts and bolts of how exactly the New Dealers did so much all at once. They detail the choices before state builders who, operating under the pressure and immediacy of the era, made decisions that held even greater consequences in the longer term.
In a time when federal agencies are under stress like never before, the contributors offer critical insights about what future administrations can learn from the New Deal’s extraordinary achievements and how they can build state capacity and deliver for Americans once again.
Features contributions by W. Tanner Allread, Mary Bridges, Brent Cebul, Sarah E. Igo, Meg Jacobs, Richard R. John, Neil M. Maher, Sharon Ann Musher, Sarah T. Phillips, Kathryn Olmsted and Eric Rauchway, Alex Platt, Jason Scott Smith, Ganesh Sitaraman, Abby Spinak, Chloe Thurston, and Mason B. Williams.
384 pages | 21 halftones, 4 tables | 6 x 9
History: American History
Political Science: American Government and Politics
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Realities of Reform
Sarah E. Igo and Ganesh Sitaraman
Part 1: Mobilizing
1. “Administration in the Field Is Decentralized”: How Horizontal Bureaucracy Helped the CCC Work
Neil M. Maher
2. Experimentation, Decentralization, and Collaboration: Strategies for Funding Art in the 1930s and Today
Sharon Ann Musher
3. How the PWA and WPA Were Run: The Politics of Public Works, Policy Implementation, and the Expansion of State Capacity
Jason Scott Smith
4. We Do Our Part: The National Recovery Administration and Enforcement at the Grassroots
Meg Jacobs
Part 2: Borrowing and Collaborating
5. Accounting for Success: How Social Security Got Its Start
Sarah E. Igo
6. Cooperative Ownership in the Rural Electrification Administration
Abby Spinak
7. Going the Next Mile: Building Governing Capacity and Market Making in the Federal Housing Administration
Chloe Thurston
8. Farms and Food: The Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the First Food Stamps
Sarah T. Phillips
Part 3: Standard-Setting
9. Sound Policy: How the Federal Communications Commission Worked in the Age of Radio
Richard R. John
10. How the SEC Was Run
Alexander I. Platt
11. Making Money Boring: How the FDIC Turned Banking from Politics to Paperwork
Mary Bridges
Part 4: Geographies
12. Patronage, Partnerships, and Power: Localism, Public Finance, and the Making of the New Deal
Brent Cebul
13. Organizing Indian Country: Tribal Constitution-Making Under the Indian Reorganization Act
W. Tanner Allread
14. The Progressive Paradox: Envisioning, Implementing, and Receiving New Deal Works Projects in New York City
Mason B. Williams
15. Tropical Laboratory: The Virgin Islands Company
Kathryn S. Olmsted and Eric Rauchway
Conclusion: Implementation and the Lessons of the New Deal
Ganesh Sitaraman
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Index