Introduction
1 Facing the Crisis: The New Deal Takes Hold
2 Making Jobs the Priority: The WPA’s Construction Projects
3 A Thousand Useful Tasks: The WPA’s Service Projects
4 Even Artists Get Hungry: Federal One Brings Culture to the People
5 The WPA on the Roller-Coaster: Politics and Funding
6 The WPA Under Fire: Challenges in Peace and War
7 Remembering the WPA: Legacy and Lessons
Documents
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Sandra Opdycke is the Associate Director at the Institute for Innovation in Social Policy at Vassar College.
Sandra Opdycke has written a concise and highly readable book about how the Works Progress Administration gave hope and a modicum of security to millions of Americans during the depths of the Great Depression. She also shows why this crucial but underappreciated component of the New Deal remains instructive today. The history of the WPA reminds us that government can help to solve our biggest problems, that a successful economy provides a decent life for all, and that every American deserves a chance to contribute to society.
Chad Alan Goldberg, author of Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmen's Bureau to Workfare
