Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Abbreviations vii
4. Introduction. Prehistory of an Idea 1
5. Chapter 1. First Objective of Reform: Direct Job Creation in the Committee of Economic Security and the Designing of the New Deal 19
6. Chapter 2. People or Projects: The Works Progress Administration Versus the Public Works Administration Reconsidered as Economic Theory and Ideology 57
7. Chapter 3. “One Third of a Nation”: WPA Direct Job Creation Reconsidered as a Policy Success 90
8. Chapter 4. Right to Work? Rethinking the Promise of Full Employment in the 1945 Moment 129
9. Chapter 5. Jobs and Freedom: The Missing Front in the War on Poverty 172
10. Chapter 6. The 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Act: The High-Water Mark for Direct Job Creation in “the New Deal That Never Happened” 210
11. Conclusion. Jobs and the Policy Imagination 261
12. Notes 271
13. Index 315
14. Acknowledgments 323