Building New Deal Liberalism The Political Economy of Public Works, 19331956 [Hardcover]

A historical study of New Deal public works programs and their role in transforming the American economy, landscape, and political system.This book provides the first historical study of New Deal public works programs and their role in transforming the American economy, landscape, and political system during the twentieth century. Through its public works, the New Deal produced a revolution in state-sponsored economic development. The scale and scope of this dramatic federal investment in infrastructure laid crucial foundations for postwar growth, anticipating the building of national highways and the military-industrial complex. This book provides a path-breaking reinterpretation of the relationship between the New Deal's welfare state and American liberalism.This book provides the first historical study of New Deal public works programs and their role in transforming the American economy, landscape, and political system during the twentieth century. Through its public works, the New Deal produced a revolution in state-sponsored economic development. The scale and scope of this dramatic federal investment in infrastructure laid crucial foundations for postwar growth, anticipating the building of national highways and the military-industrial complex. This book provides a path-breaking reinterpretation of the relationship between the New Deal's welfare state and American liberalism.Reconstructing the story of how reformers used public authority to reshape the nation, Jason Scott Smith argues that the New Deal produced a revolution in state-sponsored economic development. The scale and scope of this dramatic federal investment in infrastructure laid crucial foundations--sometimes literally--for postwar growth, prestaging the national highways and the military-industrial complex. This impressive and exhaustively researched analysis underscores the importance of the New Deal in comprehending political and economic change in modern America.1. Reevaluating the New Dl#A