Laborfest: The Living New Deal-Saving the Public Works Projects

The Living New Deal: Excavating the Public Landscape of the Great Depression
Presentation By Gray Brechin
In less than a decade, President Franklin Roosevelt's various public works agencies radically transformed the United States, giving employment to and improving the lives of millions while setting the stage for the post-war economic boom. For the past quarter century, however, the New Deal's ideological enemies have systematically rolled back and erased the memory of its epochal accomplishments without understanding how it profited them and continues to do so. Dr. Gray Brechin will discuss the Living New Deal Project - a statewide collaborative effort to document and map the physical legacy of the New Deal in California and to honor the surviving veterans. The Project will provide the foundation for a national inventory and for a discussion of the role of the public sector in a just society.