The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

FDR: The First Hundred Days. New York: Hill and Wang, 2008.

The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-40. Chicago: Ivan,

Prosperity Road: The New Deal, Tobacco, and North Carolina . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c1980.

“Whatever Happened to Roosevelt’s New Generation of Southerners?” Essay in
The Roosevelt Years: New Perspectives on American History, 1933-1945,
ed. Robert A. Garson and Stuart Kidd. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999

Here’s another recent study of the “Hundred Days”:

Alter, Jonathan. The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. New York: Simon & Schuster, c2006.

For the controversial NRA:

Finegold, Kenneth, and Theda Skocpol. State and Party in America's New Deal. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Comparison of the origins and fates of the AAA and NRA

Himmelberg, Robert F. The Origins of the National Recovery Administration: Business, Government, and the Trade Association Issue, 1921-1933. New York: Fordham University Press, 1993.

These essays examine the effects of the CCC and other environment-related programs of the New Deal:

Henderson, Henry L., and David Woolner. FDR and the Environment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

The Tennessee Valley Authority remains a subject of controversy and discussion to this day:

Chandler, William U. The Myth of TVA: Conservation and Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1933-1983. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Pub. Co., c1984.

McCraw, Thomas K. TVA and the Power Fight, 1933-1939. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1971.

Neuse, Steven M. David E. Lilienthal: The Journey of an American. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, c1996. Biography of the TVA director.

If you need to learn more about the complicated matter of government policy toward gold, get this book:

Eichengreen, Barry J. Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Invaluable if you or your students are interested in the failed attempts at international solutions to the Depression:

Clavin, Patricia. The Failure of Economic Diplomacy: Britain, Germany, France and the United States, 1931-36. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

These authors look at attempts to provide “relief” to distressed Americans:

Best, Gary Dean. FDR and the Bonus Marchers, 1933-1935. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992.

Singleton, Jeff. The American Dole: Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State in the Great Depression. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Kleinberg, S. J. Widows and Orphans First: The Family Economy and Social Welfare Policy, 1880-1939. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c2006.

Roosevelt’s relationship with his own party is a fascinating story. Look at these studies:

Frederickson, Kari A. The Dixiecrat revolt and the end of the Solid South, 1932-1968. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c2001.

Scroop, Daniel. Mr. Democrat: Jim Farley, the New Deal, and the making of modern American politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, c2006.

Sullivan, Patricia. Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c1996.

Savage, Sean J. Roosevelt, The Party Leader, 1932-1945. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, c1991.

Nick Taylor’s essay on the WPA in this issue and my suggestions for resources there will be helpful.

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The Fair Labor Standards Act is also known as the “Wagner Act.” Here’s a book about its sponsor:

Huthmacher, J. Joseph. Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism. New York, Atheneum, 1968.

The creation of American “Social Security” is followed here:

Altmeyer, Arthur Joseph. The Formative Years of Social Security. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.

Brown, J. Douglas. The Genesis of Social Security in America. Princeton, N.J., Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 1969.

Lubove, Roy. The Struggle for Social Security, 1900-1935. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1968.

These authors are interested in the planning and implementation of public policy:

Reagan, Patrick D. Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890-1943. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, c1999. Evolution of the notion of “public planning” in government.

Daynes, Byron W., et al., eds. The New Deal and Public Policy. New York: St. Martin's Press, c1998. Papers from a conference at Louisiana State University.

These can help you examine and compare evaluations of the legacy of Roosevelt’s New Deal:

Eden, Robert, ed. The New Deal and its Legacy. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. A collection of “neoconservative” essays on the New Deal.

Leuchtenburg, William Edward. The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and his Legacy. New York: Columbia University Press, c1995. A fascinating collection of essays by one of the leading historians of the New Deal.

_____. In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Bill Clinton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2d edition of Leuchtenburg’s able study of influence of Roosevelt on later Presidents – which originally ended with Reagan.