The Infinite Dividend: The WPA · Episode 1 of 13 · 38 min
What Was the WPA? The Program That Built Modern America
In 1935, with the Depression six years deep, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins bet on paying people to work rather than handing out relief. The WPA employed about 8.5 million Americans on some 1.4 million projects. The episode sorts it from the PWA and CCC and takes the boondoggle attacks seriously.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who created the WPA by executive order in 1935
- Harry Hopkins+10 more episodesSocial worker and WPA administrator, architect of the work-over-dole idea
- Harold Ickes+6 more episodesInterior Secretary who headed the rival Public Works Administration
Where it happens
- Golden Gate Bridge, California+1 more episodeOften misremembered as a WPA project; it was bond-financed
- Metlakatla, AlaskaAirfield that the CCC, not the WPA, began
Timeline
- January 4, 1935Roosevelt declares the government must quit the business of relief
- April 8, 1935Congress passes the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, about $4.88 billion
- May 6, 1935Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration
- Late 1938Employment peaks near 3.3 million workers at once
- 1939Renamed the Work Projects Administration; Congress kills the Federal Theatre Project
- 1943Roosevelt grants the WPA an honorable discharge and it is liquidated
Still debated
Historians still argue how much of the boondoggle charge was earned, whether make-work and patronage were marginal or systemic. The headline totals are well-attested estimates from agency reporting, not an audited census.
Connected episodes in other series
The 37 Days That Built the Civilian Conservation CorpsRoosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 1Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harold Ickes
FDR's Thousand-Mile Tree Wall: The Dust Bowl ShelterbeltGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 5Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Great Dams: The New Deal Remakes the ColumbiaRivers Reborn · Episode 3Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
Court-Packing and the Switch in Time: Why the Court Has Nine JusticesThe Least Dangerous Branch? · Episode 8Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt