Authors: Katherine S Newman Elisabeth Jacobs
Publish Date: 2007/07/31
Volume: 44, Issue: 5, Pages: 6-11
Abstract
Relying on rarely analyzed public opinion data from the 1930s and early 1940s we take issue with the notion popular in contemporary liberal circles that the New Deal era represented a period of expansive commitment to the security and wellbeing of the poor and politically disenfranchised At least where the public is concerned—as opposed to the progressive policy makers in the Roosevelt administration—the jobless were regarded with suspicion immigrants should be forced to “go home” women belong in the kitchen not on the shop floor The harsher the economic conditions by state the more conservative were the public attitudes Hence New Deal legislative victories accrued despite rather than because of public supportThe papers in this symposium were originally prepared for an Open Society Institute Conference in September 2006 Longer versions of these articles will appear in What Do We Owe Each Other Rights and Obligations in Contemporary American Society edited by Howard L Rosenthal and David J Rothman and published by Transaction Publishers in 2007
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