ABOUT THIS BOOK

Notable historians delve into the brass tacks of launching and sustaining federal agencies.

Critics today complain that the United States government can’t do big things, can’t do them quickly, and certainly can’t do many of them at once. The New Deal offers a striking contrast. During the 1930s, the United States created a wealth of new agencies, departments, offices, and programs—all at once and in very short order—that enabled a stunning expansion of state capacity. The question is: how?

In this illuminating collection, leading American historians explore the nuts and bolts of New Deal implementation to offer answers. From the Civilian Conservation Corps to the Rural Electrification Administration to the Securities and Exchange Commission, they uncover exactly how the New Dealers did so much so quickly. They detail the choices before state builders who, operating under the pressure and immediacy of the era, made decisions that had momentous consequences in the longer term.

At a time when federal agencies are under stress as never before, the contributors suggest what future administrations can learn from the New Deal’s extraordinary achievements—and how they can build state capacity and deliver for Americans once again.

Features contributions by W. Tanner Allread, Mary Bridges, Brent Cebul, Sarah E. Igo, Meg Jacobs, Richard R. John, Neil M. Maher, Sharon Ann Musher, Sarah T. Phillips, Kathryn Olmsted and Eric Rauchway, Alex Platt, Jason Scott Smith, Ganesh Sitaraman, Abby Spinak, Chloe Thurston, and Mason B. Williams.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Sarah E. Igo holds the Andrew Jackson Chair in American History at Vanderbilt University and is the faculty director of Dialogue Vanderbilt. She is the author of The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America and The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public. Ganesh Sitaraman holds the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law and is director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator at Vanderbilt University. He is the author or coauthor of six books, including The Great Democracy: How to Fix Our Politics, Unrig the Economy, and Unite America and The Public Option: How to Expand Freedom, Increase Opportunity, and Promote Equality.

REVIEWS

“This original book wonderfully elevates public administration and bureaucratic history to generate inventive accounts by a first-rate group of scholars. Together with the incisive framing by the editors, these essays reveal what the New Deal did, how it worked across policy subjects and agencies, and which features of state building fundamentally transformed American politics and society. In all, a fundamental contribution and a must-read for students of twentieth-century American history.”

— Ira Katznelson, author of “Fear Itself”

“In a moment when our government is failing at its most basic task—delivering for people—Igo and Sitaraman’s collection brings troves of fresh insight into how the New Deal got it done at a massive scale. These essays offer a front-row seat to the practical decisions and dilemmas implementers faced, and the ingenuity with which they used ordinary tools to create extraordinary outcomes for the American people. The effect is to remind us at this crucial juncture that we can, and must, do it again.”

— Elizabeth Wilkins, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The Realities of Reform

Sarah E. Igo and Ganesh Sitaraman

Part 1: Mobilizing

1. “Administration in the Field Is Decentralized”: How Horizontal Bureaucracy Helped the CCC Work

Neil M. Maher

2. Experimentation, Decentralization, and Collaboration: Strategies for Funding Art in the 1930s and Today

Sharon Ann Musher

3. How the PWA and WPA Were Run: The Politics of Public Works, Policy Implementation, and the Expansion of State Capacity

Jason Scott Smith

4. We Do Our Part: The National Recovery Administration and Enforcement at the Grassroots

Meg Jacobs

Part 2: Borrowing and Collaborating

5. Accounting for Success: How Social Security Got Its Start

Sarah E. Igo

6. Cooperative Ownership in the Rural Electrification Administration

Abby Spinak

7. Going the Next Mile: Building Governing Capacity and Market Making in the Federal Housing Administration

Chloe Thurston

8. Farms and Food: The Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the First Food Stamps

Sarah T. Phillips

Part 3: Standard-Setting

9. Sound Policy: How the Federal Communications Commission Worked in the Age of Radio

Richard R. John

10. How the SEC Was Run

Alexander I. Platt

11. Making Money Boring: How the FDIC Turned Banking from Politics to Paperwork

Mary Bridges

Part 4: Geographies

12. Patronage, Partnerships, and Power: Localism, Public Finance, and the Making of the New Deal

Brent Cebul

13. Organizing Indian Country: Tribal Constitution-Making Under the Indian Reorganization Act

W. Tanner Allread

14. The Progressive Paradox: Envisioning, Implementing, and Receiving New Deal Works Projects in New York City

Mason B. Williams

15. Tropical Laboratory: The Virgin Islands Company

Kathryn S. Olmsted and Eric Rauchway

Conclusion: Implementation and the Lessons of the New Deal

Ganesh Sitaraman

Acknowledgments

List of Contributors

Index