American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work

by Nick Taylor

Seventy-five years after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, here for the first time is the remarkable story of one of its enduring cornerstones, the Works Progress Administration (WPA): its passionate believers, its furious critics, and its amazing accomplishments.

The WPA is American history that could not be more current, from providing economic stimulus to renewing a broken infrastructure. Introduced in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, when unemployment and desperation ruled the land, this controversial nationwide jobs program would forever change the physical landscape and social policies of the United States. The WPA lasted eight years, spent $11 billion, employed 8½ million men and women, and gave the country not only a renewed spirit but a fresh face. Now this fascinating and informative book chronicles the WPA from its tumultuous beginnings to its lasting presence, and gives us cues for future action.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Economics, Audiobook, Ebooks

672 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2008

About the author

born 1945

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick Taylor's American-Made offers a detailed examination of the New Deal's biggest and most successful project, the Works Progress Administration. This is something of a misnomer as the book is broader in scope; often it reads like a general history of FDR's presidency that occasionally zooms in to focus in on the WPA's activities. Which is fine: Taylor is an incisive, engaging writer with an eye for human detail and pleasurable portraits (especially of the WPA's godfather, Harry Hopkins), which makes the book a compelling read even for casual history buffs. He shows the WPA's wide-ranging programs - from public works projects and disaster relief to archaeological and historical catalogs, to funding writers, theater companies (there's a fun chapter on Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater) and artists - impacted the country in a wide variety of ways, not only providing brute work for the unemployed but making use of a wide range of talents. A lot of WPA projects - historical surveys, a crucial tool for any researchers, and public art projects - remain intact today, attesting to its impact. Taylor shows that the WPA, despite its success, fell victim to political sniping as the Dies Committee viewed it as a haven for Communists; and the wartime boom after Pearl Harbor rendered it obsolete. Still, few will come away from Taylor's book without appreciating the WPA's lasting achievements - one of the most productive uses of government aide in American history.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I've increasingly been thinking that we need something like the New Deal today. The history was very interesting but it got a little too long and I lost interest. My biggest issue is that Taylor is so obviously pro-New Deal that he does a pretty crappy job of explaining any criticism. Perhaps there is no good criticism but I want to make my own mind up about that. Instead, the implication behind any opposing views was that they were made by a bunch of morons.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books which treat a subject matter like the Great Depression in such a way that in ten pages a subject matter you thought you knew about blows you away with the volume of information you had no idea existed.

In 1929 13 to 15 million people were out of work. That’s one in every four workers. There were no relief programs, everything was left to local and state governments and charities. The thought of the day was wrapped around individual responsibility. The inability to care for one’s family was a moral failure.

Herbert Hoover and his Republican Party believed business would right itself on its own with help from the government but as to helping the unemployed it was out of the question. It was not the governments business and would only get in the way of charitable giving. Anyway, the unemployed had brought this upon themselves or they would not be unemployed

Hoover’s suggestion was to build the confidence of the American citizen by comedians writing ten new jokes a day. The comedians accommodated his wish and did so, unfortunately they were mostly about him.
Like the one where Hoover goes to his Secretary of the Treasury and asked to borrow a nickel so he can call a friend. Secretary Mellon hands him a dime and tells him, “Go ahead and call both of them.”

People were literally starving and moving from place to place in search of work rumored to be here or there. They were just rumors. More and more businesses and banks went under and more and more people died of starvation. The local and state government’s coffers were dry and the charities could not handle the volume of the needs of the unemployed.

This swept Franklin Delano Roosevelt into the Presidency in 1930. He planned to go slowly to address the issue but the fervor to do something caught him up as it did everyone around him, especially Harry Hopkins.

In the first 100 days the Work Projects Administration (WPA) was established with Henry Hopkins at its head, Congress authorized billions of dollars to be spent and he immediately began hiring people. The people he hired again and again told the government, “We don’t want relief, we want a job!”
Before the program ended in June of 1943, millions and millions of people were put to work building airports, schools, laying trails in state and national parks, feeding children hot school lunches, delivering library books by horseback in rural areas, teaching over a million people how to read and write, write state guides to each state which today are still being published (I just bought one for Rhode Island), put on hundreds of original plays, painted murals on hospitals, schools, government buildings, building bridges and thousands of miles of highways, collecting histories from all over the nation of the way people lived, ate, the songs they shared and how they lived their lives and as war neared building military bases, armories, arsenal buildings, assembling rifles, machine guns, bullets, parachutes, socks, uniforms and booklets on how to keep from getting the social diseases so prevalent then. This is a partial list.

Unemployment insurance and social security came into being, protected checking and savings accounts, protection from unfair wage and employment practices, paying of farmers to leave their field fallow (this turned Jimmy Carter’s father into a Republican) and most importantly giving the American citizens jobs.
Against all these policies stood the Republicans and southern Democrats. They held hearings , published lies, accused the workers of being lazy and the ranks filled with communists, kept cutting the budgets, reducing the salaries of the administrators and adding more and more hours to the work week of the workers while at the same time cutting their pay.

Everything these same type people did to Barack and Michelle Obama they did to FDR and Eleanor calling them nigger-lovers, under the thumb of the Jewish conspiracy, having venereal diseases from cohabiting with blacks, elitists and even worse.

The Republicans and southern Democrats joined with large corporations to stifle the passage of fair labor standards, equal rights and pay and safe work environments.

It is a story all too familiar today.

But the likes of FDR, Eleanor, Hopkins, Hunter, Flanagan and many more…….well……they persisted.

It was equally a most horrible time in our history while at the same time being one of our greatest hours which gave the story its Dickensesque nature.

It should do us all who count ourselves as progressive to know this history. Others who felt as we do have gone before us and succeeded. There are always setbacks and there always will be but by god, history is on our side and I believe will be again!

[Dj · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in all a fairly even handed look at a topic that has the ability to galvanize stances even now. The New Deal was perhaps one of the most hated/loved aspects of FDR's presidency. It put people that were in rags and starving to work and they accomplished a great deal that most of the opposition to the New Deal seemed to find both upsetting, fearful and communistic. While it is clear that the author has a great deal of respect for the WPA, on of the many agencies that FDR created for Work Relief, he doesn't just show the bright side of the deal. The way the book is presented is also one that allows the reader to get a broad overview as well as an up close personal view. It talks about the larger projects that were taken under the wing of the WPA, such as the Arts, Road Construction, Airport Construction, Murals for Public Buildings and the like, but just as often when it is talking about one of those projects, it also includes an up close view of one of the relief workers that was taking part in it. The book covers the whys and whats of the WPA, why they Right and some of the Conservative Left attacked it and the good that it did.
All in all a very good book on a very trying time in the Nation's History.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Taylor's lively, comprehensive study of the WPA considerably divided the critics. Though Taylor doesn't balk at detailing the program's flaws, he also doesn't conceal his admiration for the program and the men who created it. His hero, of course, is Harry Hopkins, the WPA's founding director. Several critics praised Taylor's writing and research, describing American-Made as insightful and evenhanded. While some reviewers complained about its length and lack of focus, a few, like the reviewer from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, panned the book's politics and contemplated alternative outcomes "had the $10.5 billion allocated to the WPA been spent on a stimulus package for the private sector." Though the WPA continues to generate heated debate over its success 65 years after its dissolution, Taylor's engaging and wide-ranging American-Made is a valuable record of the federal program and its place in American history

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are already generally familiar with the WPA and supported the idea of the program, this book provides a nice positive overview of the history of the WPA, projects completed by the WPA, and anecdotal stories of individuals who worked for the WPA. It is generally evenhanded but definitely skews towards the productive aspects of the program.

It is a good book to read in the context of the current America Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which in some ways in similar, albeit with the jobs being added to the private workforce for building projects.

It is interesting but not surprising that there was significant opposition from conservative members of Congress during the life of the program.

Some programs that can be credited to the WPA include the Timberline Lodge, upgrades to the old Penn Station, significant construction of Robert Moses-related projects, many murals still preserved today in post offices and schools, and a significant number of federal courthouses.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emphasizes FDR but also Harry Hopkins, the WPAs founding director. By 1933, unemployment was roughly 25%. The Works Progress Administration was controversial, as conservative economists viewed it as wasteful and intrusive; government had no place in the marketplace, except for regulation. Over eight years, the WPA spearheaded programs that built dams, roads, bridges, and WPA workers painted murals, served hot meals to the poor, and fixed toys. Most importantly, it provided hope. Hopkins was a transplant from the Civil Works Administration. WPA soon focused on constructions. Post office murals, writers, theater and music programs. What is now known as camp david. Parks, zoos, and rec areas, as well as airports.

[Deb]

The Great Depression of 1929 was caused by the Republican Presidents' abrogation of their authority to short-sighted business interests. (Where have I heard of something like that recently?) The resulting 25% unemployment rate inspired Republican President Hoover to do absolutely nothing. The WPA was the new Democratic administration's effort to put people to work. In the process, the infrastructure of the United States was transformed; Republicans, however, continued to vilify the Democratic efforts to help those who were being crushed by economic misfortune.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news...

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book-- clearly, animatedly well-written in short, easy to absorb chapters which combined big-picture, textbook history with anecdotes and first person stories of people who lived through the time, it was a quick read, and an enjoyable and edifying one. Particularly given its era's similarity with ours!

[Roger Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I Learned a lot in this book that is dry by anyones standard. What I did not like was the authors biases for Roosevelt. His dismissal of anyone who does not agree with the New Deal borders on propaganda.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited to pick up a book on the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was one of the most important parts of FDR’s New Deal and it has had a long legacy with the infrastructure it created and the careers it helped launch. The timing of reading this book is also good in that I thought the US should have resurrected the WPA during the Great Recession that started at the end of the second Bush Administration. The government could have helped provide jobs and rebuild our roadways, bridges, schools, libraries and so forth. Private industry has never focused on these issues, filling their pockets rather than uplifting their fellow citizens.

Author Nick Taylor covers some of the amazing things that the WPA did. He tallies up the numbers in his epilogue and it blew me away. The WPA built 650,000 miles of roads, 78,000 bridges, and 125,000 buildings, including what became the Camp David Presidential Retreat in Maryland. It built or updated 800 airports and paved 700 miles of runways. Almost 900 million hot school lunches were provided to students and it operated 1,500 nursery schools. The Music portion of the WPA performed 225,000 concerts to over 150 million people. The theater project and its partners performed plays, puppet shows, vaudeville acts and circuses to 30 million people. On a smaller scale, books and magazines were delivered via cars, trucks and even pack animals to urban and rural people in order to rebuild their spirit and not just provide for their physical needs. In Kentucky in 1936, 33,000 books and magazines were delivered via these mobile libraries to 57,000 families. This program was expanded throughout the South and then to many parts across the country.

The arts were an important component to the WPA. For the first time, some artists were able to work on their art without having to have another job to support themselves. Muralists were prolific, covering public buildings and school walls with what would be held up as indicative of “New Deal art.” The WPA also funded art classes for school children and the general public. Theater, especially in urban areas, was strongly supported. So was music, although the director of the Music project focused mostly on European classical music, eschewing American folk, jazz, gospel and even some American classical composers. Even given that, the music part of the WPA was the largest Arts project employer.

Amazingly, the author shows in example after example that the rhetoric of Republicans and the conservative media and populace hasn’t changed at all since the 1920s. The same “government is bad” theme is echoed by Republican lawmakers, the 1930s-era Chicago Tribune and its ilk, and many business lobbying groups that are still in existence today, such as the National Association of Manufacturers. These groups said that people should just get a job (there were none with 25% unemployment) and take care of themselves (without any money) and each other with charitable organizations (that were stretched beyond their small coffers). Federal and state Republicans fought benefits for their constituents, including WPA jobs and projects, on the basis of ideology rather than necessity. Their constituents suffered, including privation and real starvation, to sate the officials’ hatreds. Compare this to today and health care system the Obama Administration helped create. Even the religious conservatives acted the same then as they do today. Fr. Coughlin blamed droughts on failing to be godly enough and that Democrats and the New Deal were simply doing the devil’s work. No ideas, just ideology and hate.

A perfect example of business’s speaking out of both sides of their mouth was an incident involving a Vineland, New Jersey glassworks factory (p. 276). The WPA resurrected jobs and the factory for these specialized glassblowers. Over time, their glassware vases and other creations became sought after, to the consternation of Corning Glass and their Steuben Art Glass subsidiary. Corning forced the government to end the funding for this program. They argued that if there were beautiful vases in public buildings, they ought to be from Corning, not from a WPA-funded factory. To me, that’s not a reason at all. Businesses claim they shouldn’t have to compete against a government-funded entity. They claim this is anti-capitalist and anti-free market. But, capitalism calls for competition and consumers normally buy the best products. So, instead of making their product better, Corning Glass forced the WPA-funded organization to close, sending those skilled glassblowers right back onto the welfare rolls.

While I liked the book and the information it gave me, I did have a big problem with its approach. It felt scattershot. I read a review of this book before I started and it really stuck with me. The review called it a book report on the WPA. As I read through each short chapter (often only a few pages long), I felt like someone had done a big Google search of “WPA” and then used those hits and Wikipedia to craft each section. Granted, there are interesting and valuable nuggets of originality when the author focuses on specific people who worked on a WPA project. But these character sketches are too brief, and sometimes too obvious, to illustrate the point. There was no momentum that these stories built, more just a smattering of color here and there.

The author also bought into the Red Scare rhetoric on one level. He goes to great lengths to show that the WPA was unfairly tarred as overrun with communists, socialists and other leftists. He makes a strong case that these were simply attacks by those opposed to the New Deal and FDR in general and the WPA in particular. However, while showing there wasn’t a communist takeover, he believes that there really were evil, mean communists out there trying to take over everything in some concerted and orchestrated manner. A lot of that was simply part of the Red Scare and that those who rallied for better wages, safer working conditions and access to the plenty that the rich had were not communists but just people asserting their rights as American citizens.

The House UnAmerican Activities Committee in Congress, known as the Dies Committee for its chairman, frequently targeted the WPA. They helped institute loyalty oaths for WPA workers, and eventually full-blown affidavits that seemed to curtail or eliminate freedoms of speech, thought and assembly. WPA Artists and muralists who were labelled “red” had their works destroyed. These committees and their rightwing supporters saw no irony in the suppression of the artist freedom. They only allowed testimony from those who supported the committees views, even when there was no evidence, or worse, contradictory evidence available. McCarthyism didn’t start in the 50s, it started in the late teens and continues on up to the present.

In conclusion, I would have liked a book that flowed better, and that was more focused. The WPA was an important institution and I wonder if I hadn’t known about it before I picked up this book, would Nick Taylor’s argument have been enough to make me like it? Further, I wish he’d spent more time on the WPA’s legacy. As it is, he devotes eight pages in an epilogue. Given all that, there’s, there’s a great thought he highlights from one of the people on the WPA Writers Project. This writer said it’s only welfare or “make-work” until you yourself need it Then it’s a job just like any other one (p. 301). That’s a great statement on the WPA and the importance role government can and should play for its citizens.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“American Made: the enduring legacy of the WPA: when FDR put the nation to work,” by Nick Taylor (Bantam, 2009). I knew that there was something called the WPA during the Depression, and that it did a lot of construction work. This book describes, in intimate detail, how actually gigantic the project was. Taylor helpfully supplies numbers: 650,000 miles of roads; 78,000 bridges; 125,000 civilian and military buildings; but beyond that: 900 million hot lunches to schoolchildren; 225,000 concerts; 475,000 works of art. Etc. Etc. Taylor begins before the beginning: the depth of the Depression and the staggering levels of poverty experience by Americans; almost 25% of the work force was unemployed; fields were plowed under; besides the notorious breadlines, people scavenged through garbage cans and town dumps; they lived in shacks. And the government did nothing to change that. Indeed, such relief went against the very principles of government espoused by President Herbert Hoover and the business world. People who didn’t have jobs just had to do for themselves. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, he began immediately to rectify that. He instituted economic reforms; he built up the morale of the people; and maybe most important, he created the Works Progress Administration (later the Works Projects Administration) to put people to work, in paying jobs that created real things. Roosevelt named Harry Hopkins to run the show; Hopkins turned out to be the perfect choice: very smart; extremely hard-working; absolutely incorruptible. And build they did. Taylor’s account is almost exhausting just to read, page after page of projects huge and tiny, calling on the skills and labor of men (mostly white men) who just wanted a job. For the first few years, FDR had a huge mandate and there was little opposition. Eventually, of course, conservatives began to rally against this immense make-work program, but they were never able to stop it. Only the tremendous expansion of American industry in World War II put an end to the WPA, and that was because it was no longer needed to create jobs. I am going to try to keep my eye out for WPA buildings and projects, most of which are still standing, even if the memory of the project that did the work has been almost wiped out. Taylor works very hard to keep this from becoming just lists and statistics. He mostly succeeds, but there are an awful lot of lists and statistics.

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell...

[Leanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't necessarily fault the writer, more like the lack of editing that caused my low rating. Excruciating details - for instance: I liked hearing about the librarians that would distribute books by horseback (or walking) through the countryside, but did I need a list of what a specific librarian's children were reading? I did not. That's just one of NUMEROUS examples this author took in this lengthy book. I expected some historical perspective. Was the lodge created at Mt Hood still standing today? I don't know. Maybe the author wraps it all up at the end of the book. I got to Part 4 (over half way) and felt such an overwhelming weariness to details, that I made a decision to stop. I only have so many hours left on this earth and much of this writing began to feel like a waste of my time. If the historical perspective is in the remaining chapters, I am sorry to have missed it.

[Dave Heberer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sprawling tale of how the WPA came to be describing precursor programs and the elections that confirmed the popularity of New Deal programs. It goes into great detail about larger WPA projects, who was in charge, the kind of character they were, and how the press dealt with them.

I'll be honest, I like to think I like history and I read this because I feel like we could use a jobs program in the country and wanted to figure out how people were persuaded it was a good idea to try. I felt like this was more rambling and a coherent narrative didn't exist other than "Jobs were wanted and only Roosevelt had the foresight to give the people government jobs"

[Ari Weinberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this three stars because I was left wanting for more. It is, no doubt, a massive undertaking which demonstrates the author's breadth of knowledge (and great research efforts). I really appreciated the author's enthusiasm about the WPA; it was refreshing to read something so full
of enthusiasm and wonder. Don't go into this book looking for a very specific argument- instead approach it with the intention of learning a lot of interesting information about the New Deal, including great little vignettes about peoples' lives and works.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I have to say that this is THE work on the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration, that icon of the New Deal. However, brace yourself for a long read--much too long--and it doesn't need to be. The author, for example, goes on ad nauseum about several presidential campaigns and the terrible hurricane of 1938 that struck the eats coast of the United States--but provides way too much detail at times.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tour de force. Taylor is so comprehensive, and yet it's written in small, digestible chunks. It's panoramic, but with a focus on real people, real details, inviting anecdotes. The book is just so spectacular, and details such and important part of our history. A time when we came together and used our government to save ourselves And Taylor's documentation of WPA is superb. Absolutely splendid.

[Ed Gogek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the most exciting book, but it's one of the most remarkable things the nation has done in peacetime, and this is a thorough history. The author clearly supports the WPA and the work of Harry Hopkins, but he's critical when need be. This book comprehensively lays out a story that I never learned much about in history class.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of, if not the best book I’ve read this year. Taylor tells this history with great care for detail, love for the subject matter, and an appreciation for the stories of individual Americans. That the story of a government agency can be told in such a captivating way is a testament to its importance, and the importance of this book as a record for generations to come.

[Rick Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gained a much better understanding of the Great Depression and its impact on the US. May we never see the depths of poverty and destitution again that occurred then.

I’ve come to admire Harry Hopkins as a government official that focused on his mission and delivered what was needed at the time.

[Nico Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history book needs to strike a balance of having fun interesting stories and anecdotes while also balancing discussing of the broader themes and topics. This book leans too heavy into the stories aspect and kind of looses itself and its arguments. Overall still good but damn it kept loosing my interest

[Liz]

Audible edition. There is a lot of interesting information in this book, but it is also drowning in unnecessary minutiae. I could not slog through it to the end. The fact is, government works when the people who run it don't hate it.

[Michael Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historical timeline peppered with interesting anecdotes. Could potentially have been a bit tighter in terms of length, but overall a good read. Wish there were more books on this era of progressivism.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, little long though. I did enjoy the detail and amount and anecdotes about individuals in the WPA.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Christian Kamm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book about the Works Progress Administration and it's role in easing the economic hardships of the Great Depression, but the author is very obviously biased towards the left. While I agree with the purpose of the New Deal I don't necessarily think it's right to make criticisms of Roosevelt's policies look like they came from fools. Book is also very long and gets awfully stale during the later chapters.

[Maddy Barnard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was super detailed. It was a little terrifying how many similarities there were to today.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great history of the post depression programs instituted by FDR to get Americans back to work.

[Raymond Ozuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a democracy, no person has the right to be a loafer.

[Joel Maqueira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scattered in some areas and it doesn't mention the red lining and Japanese internment camps, but is really good otherwise.