Spartacus Review

Volume 47: 27th July, 2010

20th Century History

Title: Put to Work: The WPA and Public Emplyment in the Great Depression

Author: Nancy E. Rose

Editor:

Publisher: Monthly Review Press

Price: £10.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The New Deal

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Put To Work tells the story of the massive government job-creation programs of the 1930s—not only the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but also the lesser known Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Civil Works Administration (CWA), which set the framework for the ideological and policy battles that followed. Nancy E. Rose details the development of these programs, the pressures that surrounded them, and the resulting constraints. She analyzes both their unique contributions and their shortcomings, especially in their treatment of women and African-Americans. This second edition includes a new introduction and afterword by the author in which she examines the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program in historical perspective.