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New Deal

Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

March 14, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

out of work men during the Great Depression (retouched)In 1933, during Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s first year as President, the Democrats launched a number of New Deal social welfare and economic recovery efforts to combat the Great Depression.

Among the more popular and successful of these was the creation of the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), jobs programs which were modeled on similar programs in New York State. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Agricultural History, Charles Evans Hughes, Culinary History, Dairy, Economic History, FDR, Financial History, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Industrial History, Labor History, Legal History, New Deal, New York City, Political History, Supreme Court, Wall Street, Wall Street History Series, World War Two

The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

March 9, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 4 Comments

Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression (ca 1931)Initially many thought the severe Wall Street crash of October 1929 was a temporary phenomenon and like many subsequent crashes (i.e. 1987, 2008) the stock market would recover in a few months or years.

Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. After some upward spurts, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange continued to fall for the next three years and economic conditions throughout the country continued to worsen, so that by 1932 the market closed at 41, a drop of 89% over its 1929 high of 381. Employment in Wall Street firms plummeted, as the once heady activity evaporated and the Great Depression took hold.

The response would require a great reset between Wall Street and working Americans. [Read more…] about The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Agricultural History, Al Smith, Disability History, Economic History, FDR, Financial History, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, Labor History, Manhattan, New Deal, New York City, NYC, Political History, Wall Street, Wall Street History Series

Albany County’s West Mountain: Some History

November 23, 2021 by Harold Miller Leave a Comment

Lewis Sherman HouseWest Mountain refers to the highlands in the southwest quadrant of the Town of Berne, NY, and is the highest point in Albany County at 2,160 ft.

A map of Van Rensselaer Patroonship leases made in 1787 does not shows anyone living on West Mountian, but white settlers probably started clearing land there within a few years of that date.  A few years later there were enough folks to organize the Baptist Church of Christ, just north of the Rensselaerville-Berne town line. A schoolhouse was built next door, jointly operated by both towns. [Read more…] about Albany County’s West Mountain: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Agricultural History, Albany County, Berne, Environmental History, Great Depression, New Deal, Partridge Ridge WMA, Rensselaerswijck, Rensselaerville

How New York’s Suburbs Got So Segregated

July 6, 2021 by Alan J. Singer 2 Comments

Levittown 1948 NYT Why is the population of Massapequa in New York’s Nassau County 98% percent white? Why do almost no Black families live in suburban Levittown, New York? Are we looking at free choices by families or underlying housing patterns that reflect the impact of past and current racist practices?

Newsday exposed racial channeling by Long Island realtors in an investigation that showed how they steered potential home buyers to particular towns based on their race and ethnicity. [Read more…] about How New York’s Suburbs Got So Segregated

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, development, FDR, Financial History, Housing, Long Island, New Deal, New York City, Urban History

Trailblazing Women: Mary McLeod Bethune

March 14, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Mary McLeod Bethune, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway HallAs a presidential advisor of African American Affairs during the Roosevelt administration, Mary McLeod Bethune formed the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, which would become known as the Black Cabinet. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Mary McLeod Bethune

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Black History, FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, National Archives, New Deal, Political History, Women, womens history

Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

September 23, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

Frances Perkins meets with American workersFrances Perkins, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in all four terms of his administration, is often credited with designing many of the New Deal’s social welfare programs, including Social Security.  As such, she ranks among the most influential women of the 20th Century.

Few however, know that Perkins began her career in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city of New York, work that as inspired inn part by a chance meeting an Irish Tammany Hall District Leader Tom McManus. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Al Smith, Albany, FDR, Frances Perkins, Housing, Labor History, New Deal, New York City, Political History, Prohibition, Tammany Hall, womens history

New Deal Idealism At Camp Woodland, Near Woodstock

August 18, 2019 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

the improbable communityCamp Woodland was founded in 1939 by a group of idealists inspired by the New Deal who put American democracy into practice by creating an inclusive summer camp for city kids in the Catskills near Phoenicia, NY.

Although detractors would refer to it as “Camp Red” during the McCarthy era, they helped to incubate the folk music movement in America, influenced music in Woodstock, and brought together city and rural communities through the collection and preservation of Catskills folklore and folk music. [Read more…] about New Deal Idealism At Camp Woodland, Near Woodstock

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Books, Catskills, New Deal, Woodstock

The Revolution of ’28 Talk, Booksigning In Nassau County

December 13, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

revolution of 28Robert Chiles is set to speak about his recent book, The Revolution of ’28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal, at the East Meadow Public Library in East Meadow, Nassau County, on Tuesday, December 18 at 1 pm.

Chiles will discuss Governor Alfred E. Smith’s rise to statewide and national prominence, the 1928 presidential campaign, and Smith’s relationship with Long Island. Books will be available at the event. [Read more…] about The Revolution of ’28 Talk, Booksigning In Nassau County

Filed Under: Books, Events, History Tagged With: Books, Nassau County, New Deal

New Book: Al Smith and the Revolution of 1928

April 5, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

revolution of 28Robert Chiles new book, The Revolution of ’28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal (Cornell University Press, 2018) explores the career of New York Governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee Alfred E. Smith.

The Revolution of ’28 charts the rise of that idiomatic progressivism during Smith’s early years as a state legislator through his time as governor of the Empire State in the 1920s, before proceeding to a revisionist narrative of the 1928 presidential campaign, exploring the ways in which Smith’s gubernatorial progressivism was presented to a national audience.

[Read more…] about New Book: Al Smith and the Revolution of 1928

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Al Smith, Book Notices, Immigration, New Deal, Political History

Exhibit: Reginald Marsh, US Custom House Murals

April 7, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Passing Skyline, 1937The Museum of the City of New York will present “From Ship to Shore: Reginald Marsh & The U.S. Custom House Murals,” a glimpse at rarely seen works from the celebrated American painter known for bringing city scenes to life from the beaches of Coney Island to the burlesque stage, and the United States Custom House. [Read more…] about Exhibit: Reginald Marsh, US Custom House Murals

Filed Under: History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Art History, Great Depression, Museum of the City of New York, New Deal, New York City, New York Harbor

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