Building New Deal liberalism
Subtitle: the political economy of public works, 1933-1956
By: Jason Scott Smith.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 283
Subjects: New Deal, 1933-1939; Liberalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century; United States -- Economic policy -- 1933-1945; United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945; United States -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945
Description: "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 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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Reevaluating the New Deal state and the public works revolution; title: Economic development and unemployment in the early New Deal; title: Making a New Deal state: patronage and the public works administration; title: The dilemma of New Deal public works: people or projects?; title: "Boondoggling" and the welfare state; title: Party building and "pernicious political activities": the road to the Hatch Act; title: Public works and New Deal liberalism in reorganization and war; title: Public works and the postwar world; title: Epilogue: public works and the building of New Deal liberalism.