Rauchway, Eric

OUR SYNOPSIS: Eric Rauchway argues, “The New Deal mattered then, at the cusp of spring in 1933, because it gave Americans permission to believe in a common purpose that was not war. Neither before nor since have Americans so rallied around an essentially peaceable form of patriotism. The results of that effort remain with us, in forms both concrete and abstract; the New Deal therefore matters still because Americans can scarcely get through a day without coming into contact with some part of it. It matters, too, as a message for Americans from the past: democracy in the United States, flawed and compromised as it was, proved it could emerge from a severe crisis not only intact but stronger.” (2-3) He examines the Bonus Army of unemployed veterans who marched on Washington, D.C. in July 1932, whose demonstrations were cleared by the U.S. Army, viewed from the contradictory perspective of Arlington National Cemetery. President Herbert Hoover’s handling of this demonstration by responding harshly to Americans seeking aid from the government embodied his response to the Great Depression. Meanwhile, Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for president with an opposite. Rauchway then examines the New Deal public works project of the Norris Dam in Tennessee, showing that FDR’s advocacy of public ownership and development of the dam exemplifies how he broke with his Republican predecessors. Next, he visits the Navajo Nation and considers its council meeting house, built by a New Deal “Indian Emergency Conservation Work program.” (74) Under FDR’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier, conscious collective planning focused on Indigenous well-being was prioritized. At Hunters Point in San Francisco, he considers how the New Deal impacted the neighborhood’s largely Black residents. FDR remained hesitant to cater policies to African Americans. But his treatment of all Americans as human beings, including Black Americans, contrasted past U.S. policies and drew substantial Black support.