Gray Brechin: The Living New Deal in the East Bay

Lecture & Slide Show with Dr. Gray Brechin

In 2003 Dr. Brechin began to study the nearly invisible legacy of public works projects created during President Roosevelt's New Deal to lift the country out of the last great depression. The Living New Deal Project is a collaborative venture begun by Dr. Brechin and photographer Robert Dawson to document and interpret the impact of the WPA, CCC, PWA, CWA, FSA and other New Deal programs in California. They soon discovered that the New Deal legacy is so vast and poorly documented that it required the help of others to harvest information. Former State Librarian Kevin Starr has likened the Project to a WPA project from the 1930s in its ambition and scope. California's public landscape of the New Deal includes schools, hospitals, parks, roads, sewers, airports, amphitheaters, bridges, aqueducts, power stations, city halls, art works and much more, constructed by a half dozen federal agencies. Dr. Brechin notes, "As the worldwide economic crisis deepens, FDR remains the gold standard of leadership-a style and approach that many hope and expect President Obama to emulate. Few understand the magnitude and ubiquity of its achievements”. Dr. Brechin is the author of two best-selling books and is currently vice president of the National New Deal Preservation Association and a visiting scholar the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography.


Presented by BFUU Social Justice Ctee
Refreshments. Admission is $10. No one turned away.
Wheelchair accessible
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