American-made
Subtitle: the enduring legacy of the WPA : when FDR put the nation to work
By: Nick Taylor.
Publisher: Bantam Book
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 630
ISBN-13: 9780553802351
Subjects: United States. -- Works Progress Administration; Job creation -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Description: When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, 13 million American workers were jobless. What people wanted were jobs, not handouts, and in 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created--the Works Progress Administration, which would forever change the physical landscape and the social policies of the United States. The WPA lasted for eight years, spent $11 billion, and employed 8 and a half million men and women. The agency combined the urgency of putting people back to work with a vision of physically rebuilding America. Its workers laid roads, erected dams, bridges, tunnels, and airports, but also performed concerts, staged plays, and painted murals. Sixty years later, there is almost no area in America that does not bear some visible mark of its presence.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [551]-555) and index.
Table of contents: title: In extremis; title: Hope on the rise; title: The dawn of the WPA; title: Folly and triumph; title: The arts programs; title: The phantom of recovery; title: The WPA under attack; title: WPA: War Preparation Agency; title: The legacy of the WPA; title: Glossary.