Historical Image of the Day

Government poster promoting Social Security, 1936

Historical Image of the Day

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act of 1935

Historical Image of the Day

This next set of images will come from social programs of the 20th century welfare state.

The first food stamps, 1939

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Clifford Berryman editorial cartoon depicting Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace as Adolf Hitler and American farmers as goose stepping Nazis, Washington Star, February 16, 1938

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"Work Promotes Confidence," WPA poster, New York Federal Arts Project

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Arthur Getz, "Harvest," Post office mural, Bronson, Michigan.

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American Youth Congress poster, 1930s.

Historical Image of the Day

This week I want to focus images displayed and discussed at the excellent website Picturing U.S. History. This is useful stuff for thinking about how to use images in class. In truth, although I have collected these images on the site over the years, I don't have a very sophisticated pedagogy for using them. So this site is helping me think harder about how to use the images.

For the week I am going to highlight images they have collected of artistic representations of the Great Depression and New Deal.

"Forging Ahead," New York Federal Art Project, Works Project Administration poster, 1936-41.

Forgotten American Blogging: Maury Maverick

During the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain's use of the term "maverick" to describe himself led to a curious rebuttal. Sarah wrote a post about the Maverick family of San Antonio, long leaders in regional progressive politics, snapping at McCain for adopting the term.

The most famous member of this family is Maury Maverick. Pretty much forgotten about today, Maverick had a really interesting, if short, career. Born in San Antonio in 1895, he lived the life of a member of the Texas elite--education at Virginia Military Institute, Texas Military Institute, and the University of Texas; passed the bar in 1916, served in World War I as a lieutenant earning a Silver Star and Purple Heart, engaged in private business after the war, and a career in local politics. Maverick's liberal reputation began during these years when he took on the Ku Klux Klan in San Antonio.

But in 1934, Maverick suddenly became an important national figure. With the support of San Antonio's Latino population, Maverick was elected to the House of Representatives. There he was an ardent New Dealer from one of the most conservative states in the country. Upon reaching Congress, Maverick rapidly became a leader of the progressive bloc in the House, particularly his "Mavericks," 35 young congressmen who resented the conservative Democratic leadership in Congress. Maverick led fights to create the National Cancer Institute, to clear slums, and for conservation.

Even by the time his first term began in 1935, a lot of Texas Democrats were opposed to most of the New Deal, especially Vice President John Nance Garner. One of the greatest things Lyndon Johnson ever did was sabotaging Garner's attempt to take the 1940 Democratic nomination from Franklin Roosevelt. Garner wanted to turn back much of the New Deal and it's hard to imagine Garner providing the same kind of leadership as Roosevelt through World War II. Anyway, Maverick quickly felt the ire of Garner, Martin Dies, and other conservative Texas Democrats. He managed to get reelected in 1936. But in 1938, running for a 3rd term, the Texas Democratic Party redbaited Maverick out of office, claiming that he wanted to "supplant the American flag with the red flag of Russia." During these years he also mentored the young Lyndon Johnson, an interesting point because Johnson certainly didn't follow Maverick's radical leanings. However, Johnson was excellent at making people believe he was on their side, regardless of the position, so this is not the surprising.

Maverick still was very popular among the Latino poor that made up much of his district and almost immediately upon his return to Texas he was elected mayor of San Antonio. Maverick received federal money to build the famed Riverwalk that now defines downtown San Antonio, an object lesson to Texans of what the federal government can do for you, not that they would ever listen.

Again, the Texas Democratic Party, and especially the San Antonio political machine, worked to redbait him out of office and he was defeated for reelection in 1941. Maverick was a strong believer in free speech. He lent out San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium to a labor union with communist connections. In response, his opponents burned him in effigy and destroyed his political career. Still the ardent New Dealer, Maverick worked for the Roosevelt administration in useful ways during World War II, serving on the War Production Board and the Smaller War Plants Corporation, as well as the Office of Price Administration and Office of Personnel Management.

Following World War II, Maverick went back to the law, dying in 1954 at the age of 58. His son, Maury Maverick, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps, providing a lonely liberal voice to Texas politics until his death in 2003.

Reich Defends The New Deal

The other day, I discussed why conservative talking points about the New Deal were absurd. But of course Robert Reich can do it much more eloquently.

1. The New Deal relieved a great deal of suffering by establishing social safety nets -- Unemployment Insurance, Aid for Dependent Children, and Social Security for retirees. Most have remained, a worthy legacy. But because the structure of the economy has changed (a much higher percentage of the working population is now employed part-time in several jobs or as independent contractors, for example), there are gaping holes in the safety net which a New New Deal should fill in order that the Mini Depression we're experiencing not cause excessive harm.

2. FDR's public works spending did help the economy somewhat. By 1936, U.S. the economy was showing some life. Unemployment was declining and consumers were beginning to buy. But FDR cut back on public-works spending, and the economy sank back into its former torpor. A warning to Obama: Don't worry about so-called "fiscal responsibility" when aggregate demand still falls far short of the economy's total capacity.

3. The Second World War pulled the nation out of the Great Depression because it required that government spend on such a huge scale as to restart the nation's factories, put Americans back to work, and push the nation toward its productive capacty. By the end of the war, most Americans were better off than they were before its start. Yes, the national debt ballooned to 120 percent of GDP. But the debt-GDP ratio subsequently declined -- not just because post-war spending dropped but because the economy continued to grow as war production converted to the production of consumer goods. Lesson: The danger isn't too much stimulus, it's too little stimulus.

Indeed.

The Problem with the New Deal

The most frustrating public historical narrative of the last month or so is the right-wing talking machine saying that the New Deal didn't work, that it worsened the economy, or in the words of Republican congressman Steve Austria, that it started the Great Depression!

I've been tempted to talk abou this several times, but as I am not really a New Deal scholar, and as many more qualified individuals around the blogosphere have responded strongly to this (see this great discussion of Eric Rauchway's new book on the New Deal at TPMCafe), I chose not to.

But via Yglesias, Bruce Bartlett nails an important point, even if I don't agree with all the details. The problem with the New Deal wasn't that it was too large and wasteful and led to too much of a deficit. The problem with the New Deal was that it was not nearly large enough to overcome the Depression. Conservatives love to point out that it was World War II that brought us out of the Depression. Yes, but they totally miss the point. World War II was a massive unprecedented government investment and intervention into the American economy. It dwarfed the New Deal in size and scope. That's why it ended it Depression. Instead of understanding this, conservatives just like to make vague connections between war and economic growth, two things they like a lot, and not worry about the details. That other wars haven't led to simiarl economic booms doesn't seem to deter them. But then they are conservatives and are too often blissfully ignorant of reality.

The lesson for current policy makers is that there is a real dangerous of going too small, despite the seemingly huge size of the deficit. I am very leery of drawing too close of connections between the Great Depression and today. 1933 and 2009 are an awful long time apart, the economy and society are incredibly different between the two periods, and there are issues today that no one could have dreamed off 76 years ago. But if we are going to draw lessons from the past for present problems, we might as well actually understand what happened then so that we avoid unnecessary mistakes.

Public Works

I love Obama's public works package.

I love it because it shows that the new government actually cares about the American people, a nice change from the last 8 years.

I love it because we really need work on our infrastructure. The Republicans were never going achieve Grover Norquist's dream of drowning government in a bathtub, but they were happy to do so for the parts of government that make life better for Americans. Our infrastructure is in dire straits, as seen in the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

I love it because it is going to put people back to work. It's a return to New Deal style programs where the federal government steps in during economic crisis to give people jobs and get the economy going again.

And I probably love it because, like a lot of other liberals, I romanticize the New Deal a bit. I can't even say how many times I've heard people wish for a new Civilian Conservation Corps. There's something about that agency that really sticks in the heart of liberals, especially male liberals. I guess it has something to do with being outside, doing tough masculine work, but for a good cause rather than hunting or logging or something like that. This is obviously psychoanalytical speculation, but I think it not without merit. People don't romanticize the other New Deal agencies quite so much, but the idea of the government putting people to work in really productive, nation-building ways, is a liberal fantasy that I'm happy to share.

Historical Image of the Day

Bayou Borbeau Plantation, being run as a Farm Security Administration cooperative, Natchitoches, Louisiana, 1940

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Thurman Arnold, FDR's antitrust czar.

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Bonneville Dam, Columbia River, circa 1940

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Works Progress Administration project, Utah, 1930s

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Workers hooking up electric lines to provide TVA generated power to Tennessee Valley residents.

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Francis E. Townsend and California Senator Sheridan Downey, 1934

Historical Image of the Day

Lizzie Hill, ex-slave interviewed by the WPA, 1930s