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

Jason Scott Smith

Cambridge University Press, 2006 - History - 283 pages

Providing 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.

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

User Review  - Mscout - Goodreads

Admittedly not my cup of tea, but could have been ~100pp shorter if he'd refrained from redundancy...

Contents

• Reevaluating the New Deal State and the Public Works Revolution: 1
• Economic Development and Unemployment during the Early New Deal: 21
• Making a New Deal State Patronage and the Public Works Administration: 54
• The Dilemma of New Deal Public Works People or Projects?: 85
• Boondoggling and the Welfare State: 135
• Party Building and Pernicious Political Activities The Road to the Hatch Act: 160
• Public Works and New Deal Liberalism in Reorganization and War: 190
• Public Works and the Postwar World: 232
• Epilogue Public Works and the Building of New Deal Liberalism: 258
• Sources: 267
• Index: 273

About the author

Jason Scott Smith is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico. He previously held a Mellon Fellowship in American Studies at Cornell University, where he was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of History and the Department of Government. In 2001-02 he was the Harvard Newcomen Fellow at the Harvard Business School, where he taught courses on the history of capitalism. His work has appeared in a number of journals, including the Journal of Social History, Pacific Historical Review, Reviews in American History, and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956
• Author: Jason Scott Smith
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0521828058, 9780521828055
• Length: 283 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economic History; History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / Modern / 20th Century; History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / General