Lessons from the New Deal Public Employment Programs

The following essay is adapted from the concluding chapter of the new edition of Nancy Rose's Put to Work, just published by Monthly Review Press. The book is an examination of the various work programs implemented by the New Deal during the Great Depression. This second edition is especially appropriate, as we are now experiencing the most severe economic crisis since the 1930s, what some are calling the "Great Recession," and there is once again much talk about putting people to work. Nothing before or after the 1930s has matched the magnitude of the FERA, CWA, and WPA-programs that provided work each month for several million people, paid decent wages, and developed innovative projects in construction, the arts, and the production of consumer goods.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Depression (economics) · Economics · Great Depression · Great recession · Labour economics · New Deal · Nothing · Political science · Public work · Recession · Sociology · The arts · Work (physics) · Engineering · History · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration