Historical Studies of Urban America

Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era

Gail Radford

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780226702216
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

In an era when many decry the failures of federal housing programs, this book introduces us to appealing but largely forgotten alternatives that existed when federal policies were first defined in the New Deal. Led by Catherine Bauer, supporters of the modern housing initiative argued that government should emphasize non-commercial development of imaginatively designed compact neighborhoods with extensive parks and social services. The book explores the question of how Americans might have responded to this option through case studies of experimental developments in Philadelphia and New York. While defeated during the 1930s, modern housing ideas suggest a variety of design and financial strategies that could contribute to solving the housing problems of our own time.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 American Housing before the Depression
• 2 The Politics of Housing in the 1920s
• 3 Catherine Bauer and the Plan for “Modern Housing”
• 4 The PWA Housing Division
• 5 The Hosiery Workers' Model Development
• 6 The Harlem River Houses
• 7 The Struggle to Shape Permanent Policy
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Index