Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933–1956

by Jason Scott Smith

• ISBN13: 9780521139939
• ISBN10: 0521139937
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book provides the first historical study of New Deal public works programs and their role in transforming the American economy, landscape, and political system during the twentieth century. Reconstructing the story of how reformers used public authority to reshape the nation, Jason Scott Smith argues that the New Deal produced a revolution in state-sponsored economic development. The scale and scope of this dramatic federal investment in infrastructure laid crucial foundations - sometimes literally - for postwar growth, presaging the national highways and the military-industrial complex. This impressive and exhaustively researched analysis underscores the importance of the New Deal in comprehending political and economic change in modern America by placing political economy at the center of the 'new political history'. Drawing on a remarkable range of sources, Smith provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the relationship between the New Deal's welfare state and American liberalism.

Author Biography

Jason Scott Smith is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vi
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Common Abbreviations in Text and Notes	p. xiii
Reevaluating the New Deal State and the Public Works Revolution	p. 1
Economic Development and Unemployment during the Early New Deal	p. 21
Making a New Deal State: Patronage and the Public Works Administration	p. 54
The Dilemma of New Deal Public Works: People or Projects?	p. 85
ôBoondogglingö and the Welfare State	p. 135
Party Building and ôPernicious Political Activitiesö: The Road to the Hatch Act	p. 160
Public Works and New Deal Liberalism in Reorganization and War	p. 190
Public Works and the Postwar World	p. 232
Epilogue: Public Works and the Building of New Deal Liberalism	p. 258
Sources	p. 267
Index	p. 273
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