Historian & Author Lauren Coodley puts a spotlight on Napa's New Deal

 
Above: Lauren Coodley, Lost Napa Valley, Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2021. Image scan from personal copy.

The New Deal gave a helping hand to the Napa area

In her book, Lost Napa Valley, historian and author Lauren Coodley writes about New Deal improvements to the town of Napa and its surrounding area. The WPA worked on roads, water mains, a utility plant, culverts, retaining walls, and more, while the CCC built a road to the top of Mt. St. Helena and camped out in the Los Posadas forest (pp. 98-100).

The WPA also started a recreation program, which created a foundation of interest for the later Napa Parks & Recreation (pp. 117-118).

The shared experience of social & community loss

Coodley's book is primarily about Napa during the early-to-mid, and somewhat later 1900s (with some references back to the 1800s and earlier); and about changes that many of us can relate to. And a theme that builds as the book moves along (subtly at first, and more explicit at the end) is: Are the changes for the better?

We read about farmland "razed, and apartments now crowd out to the street" (p. 35). We learn of a large employer, a tannery, shuttering its business (where will the workers go? will they earn as much as they did at the tannery?). We see another large Napa employer, a clothing factory, close up shop. We are told that a mini-golf is "gone for good" (p. 123); a theater was replaced by "a condo complex" (p. 124); and a skating rink disappeared too. Small shops replaced by big corporate stores. Animals replaced by people - on a grand scale. It's all there. Many of us have seen a carbon copy of this "progress" in our own lives.

I grew up in Cape St. Claire, a town between Annapolis, Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay (Anne Arundel County). All the wooded areas that I played in as a child--that my friends made tree houses in--are gone. Every single square foot of them - replaced by house after house, with some houses placed at odd angles to make sure the maximum number of houses could be inserted for the developer's profit.

I remember watching Star Wars in 1977, with my father and brother, at a drive-in theater in Glen Burnie (in the northern part of Anne Arundel County). Gone. I also remember several natural areas along Ritchie Highway (a road that connects Annapolis to Baltimore). Gone. They've been ruthlessly shredded to the ground to make room for endless bedroom communities, ugly condos, and overkill shopping centers.

I remember we could go crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay and easily fill a bushel with big (BIG) crabs, steam 'em up, and have a inexpensive feast (oh, how I remember those glorious days!). But with thousands more people piling in the Bay area, the crabs got much smaller... and much more expensive at the stores. Is that really progress?

And where I currently live, in West Virginia, a paper mill closed just two years or so ago. Demand fell for the type of paper the mill produced. And so I ask again (as many have asked, I'm sure): Where will the workers go? Will they earn as much as they did before?

What I'm trying to highlight is that, to fully appreciate Lost Napa Valley, you'd have to be from Napa. But to simply appreciate it, in a very basic way, you don't - because it will likely relate to what you've experienced too. The dubious goal of "progress," as many of us have probably discovered, is often just cover for development for profit, and for profit alone. (However, the developers do thank you for your cooperation... from whatever distant McMansion community they're living in).

As with her previous local history works, Lauren Coodley's Lost Napa Valley provides a good example, or even a template, for those wishing to write their own local histories. Though the overarching theme is loss, it is not a dark book - it is a celebration of Napa's past, punctuated here and there by (very appropriate) feelings of loss.

How the New Deal and the WPA created public recreation in Florida

 
Above: Article and photos from the September 11, 1938 edition of The Miami News. Photographers unknown, provided courtesy of newspapers.com, and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Recreation... of, by, and for the people

In the Final Report of the WPA Program, 1935-43 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947), we learn that "It was largely through WPA recreation projects that the many new public recreational facilities constructed throughout the country by WPA workers were brought into full use. The program was designed to provide recreational opportunities for the general public" (p. 62).

In 1938, Florida WPA  Administrator Robert J. Dill, writing in the The Miami News newspaper, highlighted the importance of the WPA to public recreation in Florida:

"Florida has long been famous as a recreation place. But until recently most of its recreation opportunities were open only to tourists... Floridians have been too busy catering to tourists to provide public recreation for themselves. They found recreation spots too crowded or too expensive... This situation has been due to the shortage of publicly-owned recreation facilities... Perhaps a continuance of prosperity in time would have extended recreation facilities to residents of the state as well as visitors. But in fact it was the federal relief program, beginning in 1933, and expanding under the works progress administration, which has changed the recreation situation in Florida. Formerly only 11 cities maintained municipal recreation departments, and all but two of these were cities in which the main business was the entertainment of winter visitors. Today, as a result of the recreation leadership program of the WPA, 153 communities enjoy the benefits of planned, year-round recreational activities" ("WPA Brings Recreation to Florida Thousands," The Miami News, September 11, 1938, p. 23).

Above: A new WPA-constructed playground for the town of Miami Springs, Florida, with tennis courts, roque courts (for a croquet-like game), a shuffle board, a horseshoe court, and other playground materials, ca. 1935-1940. This was one of 206 playgrounds the WPA constructed in Florida. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A new WPA-built wading pool in Adair Park, Lakeland, Florida, 1937 - one of 22 swimming and wading pools the WPA built in Florida. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

A vast, nationwide recreation initiative

In The Miami News article cited above, Mr. Dill gives a fascinating and voluminous account of what the WPA did for recreation in Florida. He concludes with this note on the WPA's national impact:

"Throughout the nation, 2,000,000 adults and over 3,000,000 children are now enjoying recreation under WPA leadership. Forty thousand WPA recreation leaders operate over 14,000 community centers and assist in the operation of 7,000 more. What is being done in Florida is fairly representative of what is going on over a large part of the country. WPA construction of recreation facilities has provided many new opportunities... In all, the WPA has constructed over 1,500 athletic fields, about 900 large and small parks, over 1,300 school playgrounds, over 400 swimming pools and over 300 wading pools, over 3,500 tennis courts, and over 3,700 recreational buildings, including auditoriums, community houses, stadiums, gymnasiums and bathhouses. The American people are realizing the need of opportunities to make the healthiest and happiest use of their leisure time."

(Note: The statistics that Dill gives above are from 1935-1938, not even half the life of the WPA. In many cases, you can double or triple the statistics he gives for the full accomplishments of the WPA, 1935-1943.)

Five highlights from Scott Borchert's book: "Republic of Detours: How The New Deal Paid Broke Writers To Rediscover America"

 
Above: Scott Borchert, Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers To Rediscover America, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. Image scan from personal copy.

A book about downtrodden writers

I recently finished Scott Borchert's book, Republic of Detours, about the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the WPA. It's clear that a great amount of research went into this book, and Borchert's style of writing is very swift and smooth - making the 300+ page book move quicker than expected. He covers the beginnings of the FWP and the background of its director, Henry Alsberg; four of its most prominent writers (as well as briefer notes on other writers); and the demise of the FWP.

Here are five highlights from the book that I found particularly interesting:

1. The Guidebooks: What, exactly, are they??

Early on, Borcherts describes the FWP's most prominent set of projects - the state and other various guidebooks: "These books sprawled. They hoarded and gossiped and sat you down for a lecture [this is a great example, by the way, of Borchert's swift and smooth writing]. They seemed to address multiple readers at once from multiple perspectives. They ran to hundreds of pages. They contained a melange of essays, historical tidbits, folklore, anecdotes, photographs, and social analysis - along with an abundance of driving directions thickened by tall tales, strange sites, and bygone characters... they were rich and weird and frustrating" (p. 4).  

This is interesting because I too have found the guidebooks to be both fascinating and frustrating. I have wondered whether I should read them straight through, or just have them on hand as reference books? - like a set of encyclopedias, where I flip to the appropriate sections as needed.

Perhaps, in modern times, the guidebooks are whatever you want them to be - straight-through reads, reference items, collector's items, artworks to display (if you have the original dust jacket!), or a cherished symbol of a bygone government that was of, by, and for the people.

2. Permanent guidebook projects?

On p. 53, we learn that "George Cronyn [a high-ranking FWP administrator] wrote to Jacob Baker and another WPA official: 'There is no escaping the conclusion that [guidebooks] will be a permanent government function, similar in certain respects to the census. It will be one of the most important perpetual sources of information the government can offer.'"

Of course, like so many other New Deal programs, permanency would not be the outcome. After the New Deal and after the war, the progressive policy baton was usually dropped by the subsequent generations. And after 1980, the "greed is good" ethos took complete control. Who needs guidebooks for the people, after all, when you can buy a private island, build a luxury doomsday bunker, or have your own intergalactic space cruiser to escape the lowly masses?

Fortunately, Social Security, FDIC, and some other programs are still with us... for now. (And of course, plenty of art and infrastructure too.) But the ethos that made the FWP possible? Nope, that's gone. Sorry, Mr. Cronyn. 

3. How did the writers remember the FWP?

One of the most fascinating aspects of Borchert's book is his occasional documentation of how FWP veterans remembered the FWP. Zora Neale Hurston, for example, was not a fan of the FWP (nor of the New Deal generally). Studs Terkel, on the other hand, remembered it fondly and said, "I was lucky to be alive at that moment." Borchert points out that Terkel saw the FWP as a sort of savior from "a secure but deadening life as a lawyer." (Both quotes, p. 145).

4. New Deal racial dynamics

On pp. 172-174, Borchert describes the complicated racial dynamics of the New Deal. When I started reading this section, I thought, "Oh boy, here we go, another imbalanced assessment of the New Deal." But I was happily wrong. Borchert does a masterful job of explaining both the positive and negatives, and concludes, "In other words, it was complicated."

Thank you!

Indeed, Borchert's brief description of the relationship between the New Deal and race is one of the best I've read in a work that is not primarily about racial politics and policy.

5. The wonderfully cantankerous Harold Ickes

One part of Borchert's book made me laugh out loud (which is kind of weird when you're in a room by yourself, right?). He writes that Harold Ickes--FDR's Secretary of the Interior, and also head of the Public Works Administration--was not a fan of Martin Dies and his committee on un-American activities (a committee which ended up being more of an anti-New Deal crusade); and Ickes wrote of Dies: "For his unmitigated gall, for his long-winded yammerings that seemingly go 'babbling' on forever, and for the strange power that he appears to have over Congress, I christen him 'Bubble Dancer' Dies who cavorts lumberingly on the Congressional stage with nothing but a toy balloon with which to hide his intellectual nudity" (p. 255).

See, this is why New Deal aficionados LOVE Harold Ickes. His irascibility, coupled with Harry Hopkins' irreverence, alone make the New Deal a wonderful thing.

Republic of Detours is a well-written, thoroughly-researched, and informative book. And it may just inspire you to take a closer look at that state guide book sitting on your shelf.

Eleanor Roosevelt's Christmas Story

 
Above: Christmas: A Story by Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940).

Eleanor's Roosevelt's Christmas is a children's book, but surprisingly dark. It takes place in 1940's Netherlands, during and after the Nazi invasion. 

After losing her father to the war, 7-year-old Marta meets a man outside her home who declares, "There is no Christ Child. That is a story which is told for the weak. It is ridiculous to believe that a little child could lead the people of the world, a foolish idea claiming strength through love and sacrifice. You must grow up and acknowledge only one superior, he who dominates the rest of the world through fear and strength."

The man (most probably a quisling or a Nazi official) offers to take Marta and her struggling mother to a place where they will find food and comfort, as long as they renounce their beliefs. The mother declines, stating: "Where you are, there is power and hate and fear among people, one of another. Here... there is the Christ Child [who] taught love. He drove the money-changers out of the temple, to be sure, but that was because He hated the system which they represented. He loved his family, the poor... I will stay here with my child..."

That is essentially where the book ends, with Marta and her mother resisting the seduction of an easy, but evil comfort. The book is a fascinating glimpse into Eleanor Roosevelt's Christian beliefs, which seem to have been quite strong. A summary of the book, on the inside of the dust jacket, tells us that Eleanor's book "pictures a Christmas Eve in a land in which the happy peaceful days of pre-war times no longer exist; where the greed and the ruthlessly aggressive power of the invader have full control, but a Christmas Eve in which a great faith, love, and hope buoys up the hearts of the conquered even in their greatest distress."

Above: A happy memory for Marta, skating with her mother and father. This is one of several illustrations in the book - drawn by Fritz Kredel, a German artist who fled Nazi Germany in 1938.

Progressives killed the Build Back Better plan

 
Above: "Down and Out," a painting by Barnett Braverman (1888-?), while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. The guy on the floor is symbolic of Progressives, and the guy who knocked him out is symbolic of Corporate Democrats. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Genessee Valley Council on the Arts.

Progressives are the suckers... again

Now that Joe Manchin has declared his opposition to the Build Back Better (BBB) plan, it's time for us to admit who really killed the BBB: Progressives.

Except for the Squad of Six (AOC, Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, Bowman, and Bush), the Progressive Caucus House members (nearly 100 legislators!) all voted to in favor of Manchin's Bipartisan Infrastructure legislation (BIF), stupidly trusting that Manchin (and Sinema) would eventually come around on the BBB. But once Manchin got his BIF, all leverage was lost, and then Manchin predictably squashed the BBB. Manchin is the snotty schoolyard kid who says, "Let me be the quarterback first, and then you can be the quarterback"; but then, when his time is done, he takes the football and goes home.

And all this came to pass after Progressives had already let Manchin whittle the BBB down from $3.5 trillion to somewhere between $1.5 and $1.9 trillion. Make no mistake about it, Manchin was toying with them the whole time.

Progressives voted for the BIF because they were scared. They were told to get in line, because Biden needed a win, and because Democrats needed the BIF for the 2022 mid-terms. The talking heads of the mainstream media were wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth, desperately wondering why Progressives were harming the Biden presidency, and "sabotaging the mid-terms!!!" But now the talking heads have changed their minds, and it seems that Americans won't be voting based on the infrastructure legislation after all. (WTF?)

So, Progressives caved for nothing, and are now complaining about Manchin. 

Progressives have been doing this crap for over 10 years now: Crafting, caving, and complaining. They craft bold policy proposals, cave to moderates, and then complain when things go sour. So, instead of a good CCC (a Civilian Conservation Corps, or a Civilian Climate Corps), we get a bad CCC (craft, cave, complain).

What Progressives don't understand, is that as long as they keep caving, moderates and right-wingers will keep playing them for suckers - just like Joe Manchin just did.

And the craft, cave, and complain act is getting really, REALLY, old. Dear Progressives: Either stand your ground, or don't bother with public policy at all. You're just creating false hope.

Back in October, when CNN's Dana Bash confronted Pramila Jayapal about Manchin's demand that the BBB be no larger than $1.5 trillion, Jayapal responded, "Well, that's not going to happen."

Actually it did happen, and in a big way. The BBB is now at $0. 

Five million dead from covid, and the ultra-rich are complaining about a lack of marinas for their super-yachts

 
Above: "The Yacht Race," a wood engraving print by Frederick Becker (1913-2004), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Mourn for the homeless... super-yachts

The super-rich are buying bigger and bigger yachts, and they're getting a bit irritated that the world's marinas are not keeping pace with them. One wrote:

"For instance, we've just experienced days of very rough water from the southern Queensland border to the Capricorn Coast. Then, when we arrived at the coast not feeling that great after two very rough sleepless nights and a rough day, many yachts were outside the marinas... These superyachts need marinas too – sadly lacking for vessels over 50 metres. It's time for more marinas large enough to cater not only for small and medium yachts but larger ones too" ("Sailing away: superyacht industry booms during Covid pandemic," The Guardian, December 12, 2021).

Some people feel that it's time for Medicare-for-All. Others feel that it's time for a Job Guaranty program, or perhaps a Universal Basic Income, so that people don't have to live in squalor. And still others think that it's time for new water lines, so that the children of the working-class don't have to drink lead. But the super-rich? They feel... very passionately... that it's time for bigger marinas.

One thing we know for sure, is that right-wing voters will continue to put into power politicians who will give more and more tax cuts to the rich... so that the rich can continue on, and even accelerate their journey of separation from us. We will be left in the exhaust smoke of our holy JOB CREATORS.

"Whether it's this or private jets or trips to space, they're just sticking two fingers up [the British equivalent of the middle finger] at the rest of society. It’s decadent. They're not comfortable with the constraints that come with accepting collective responsibility for the fate of the planet."

--Professor Peter Newell, Sussex University (see The Guardian article cited above)

The Marvelous Mietzi Bleck (1911-1949): Poet, Veteran, and New Deal Artist

 
Above: "The New Cabin," a linoleum print by Marie "Mietzi" H. Bleck (1911-1949), created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Marie H. Bleck, or "Mietzi," was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on May 11, 1911, to Herman and Elizabeth Bleck. In the 1930s, she graduated from both the Oshkosh State Teachers College and the Milwaukee State Teachers College (in the latter, she majored in art). She taught grade school art classes in Mercer, Wisconsin, and then became head of the art department at Oshkosh High School in 1938.

Mietzi's artistic ideas came from the great outdoors: "she makes numerous canoe and camping trips on Wisconsin's lakes and rivers and receives many of her inspirations from their beauty" ("Paintings are Exhibited By Young Mercer Artist," Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan), August 5, 1939, p. 6). 

Mietzi won a Milwaukee Journal art prize for a painting called, "Log Decks, Mercer," and her artwork, "Ice Job," "was exhibited in the 1939 Corcoran gallery exhibition in Washington, D.C.," (see previously cited newspaper article). She also created several artworks for the WPA's Federal Art Project - see, for example, "Marie H. (Mietzi) Bleck," General Services Administration (but note the incorrect years of her life; she died in 1949, not 1988).

In 1943, Mietzi joined the WAVES, a division of the U.S. Navy, to become an aerographer's mate, where she learned "weather observation, such as the use of meteorological instruments, charts and weather codes" ("Enjoys Being In WAVE Service," The Oshkosh Northwestern, September 30, 1943, p. 8.) After the war, Mietzi moved to Alaska and utilized all her skills: exhibiting her art in Juneau; working for the United States Weather Bureau; and teaching art in Palmer, Alaska.

Above: "Muskie Fishermen," a linoleum print by Marie "Mietzi" H. Bleck (1911-1949), created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. Image from a Oshkosh Museum Facebook post, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Mietzi Bleck also self-published a book of poems, the inspiration coming from two summers spent on an Apache Indian reservation (among other places), "where she learned to hunt, studied arts and crafts and obtained material for her book of poems, 'Crossed Roads'" (see reference above, "Enjoys Being In WAVE Service"). 

A 1937 newspaper article gave an interesting description of Mietzi's book: "The book of poetry indicates the author's versatility, ranging from nature poems to philosophical themes, and the woodcuts show real artistry. The appearance of the book is attractive, the copies being bound in various kinds of linen and chintzes [multi-colored fabric, created by woodblock printing] and in snakeskin. The hand-torn pages of the interior are of eggshell American text paper" ("Mercer Visitor Composes, Depicts Book Of Poems," Iron County News (Hurley, Wisconsin), August 6, 1937, p. 3).

Mietzi's book, Crossed Roads: A Book of Poems in Words and Wood, is hard to find today (it seems she only published a few dozen of the highly ornamented books). There appears to be a copy at the Library of Congress (see the Worldcat entry here), but I don't see anything available through online book sellers. On the Amazon.com entry for Mietzi's book, it says "Out of Print - Limited Availability," and a single customer / reviewer of the book says, "Looking for other copies to buy. Please contact."

Mietzi Bleck seems to have been bursting with energy. A journalist who met her wrote: "The author of 'Crossed Roads'... [told] me how she composed the poetry, carved the woodblocks, set up the type, and a hundred other things while I stood agog hoping my memory would serve me better than usual" (see reference above, "Mercer Visitor Composes..."). Indeed, Mietzi may have had more energy and enthusiasm than the world could contain. She died in 1949, at the age of 37, after a lengthy illness. She rests at the Riverside Cemetery in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

"Triolet," by Mietzi Bleck, 1937

I shall return

To my north country home

Among hemlock and fern...

I shall return.

Where mountain roads turn

And climb high shall I roam;

But I shall return

To my north country home.

(Other sources of information, not cited above: "Marie Bleck Has One-Man Art Show In Alaska," Iron County Miner, June 21, 1946, p. 2; "Former Teacher Passes," Iron County Miner, May 6, 1949, p. 2; "Miss Marie Bleck," Iron County News, May 6, 1949, p. 4; "Oshkosh Has Most Teacher Graduates," The Capital Times, June 8, 1930, p. 20; "Marie 'Mietzi' Bleck," Find a Grave (with accompanying Milwaukee Journal obituary; accessed December 8, 2020).)

A WPA project for the Chippewa

 
Above: William Nickaboine, a Chippewa Indian, on a WPA land-clearing project in Minnesota. From the August 1941 edition of Indians at Work.