Eric Rauchway calls the New Deal a peaceable form of patriotism, a moment of common purpose exemplified by a built environment transformed through the exercise of government power. At the most basic level the New Deal still matters because Americans can scarcely get through a day without coming into contact with some part of it. Rauchway's book is therefore a tour of selected venues that exemplify what he sees as the New Deal's most significant and visible accomplishments. The book is rooted in physicality: an account of some of the dams, libraries, school buildings, housing projects, and roads whose construction put paychecks and a more tangible sense of their shared citizenship in the hands of millions.
Rauchway starts at Arlington National Cemetery, where we visit the tombs of two World War I veterans, both killed when police shot them in the summer of 1932 during an altercation with the Bonus...
