Center For New Deal Studies

Among the Center's amazing volumes is a copy of The Green Book, the traveling guide for African Americans that helped them stay safe while traveling. Often friendly homes whose owners rented rooms were listed. Russellville had two homes like that. One was being renovated, but the other had been lost. What was lost is now found. This video tells the story of how one high school student found the missing home. History is evolving all around us, we just have to notice it.
https://youtu.be/IzfQBOYOI7g?si=M5ULNtPjLMhOBucz

On this day in 1976, President Gerald Ford did something I will always admire and thank him for. Today he signed Presidential Proclamation 4417 formally ending Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 authorizing Japanese internment and formally apologizing for the gross injustice the American people inflicted upon their fellow citizens. Thank you, President Ford. May we always act with as much grace and compassion as you did.

It's the anniversary of worst thing my favorite President ever did. This is Franklin Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066 authorizing Japanese internment. It was and is a stain on the American's tapestry.

Some of the most fun you can have as an historian is to uncover forgotten or lost history. Listen to how an antique dealer found a photo of an affluent seeming woman with the scarred hands of a garment worker and rediscovered a brave union activist who helped shaped the labor movement in the early 20th century.

1890 Family Portrait Discovered — And Historians Recoil When They Enlarge the Mother’s Hand 1890 Family Portrait Discovered — And Historians Recoil When They Enlarge the Mother’s Hand

Everything has a history. Learn the tragic history behind Lizzy & the T!ggermen's viral hit against fascism, "When That Man is Dead and Gone."

THANK YOU for 10k Subs! And Some Eerie History on "When That Man Is Dead and Gone" Wow - just wow. We are usually a band who gets buried by the algorithm. Our entire success as a band has been through word-of-mouth from our INCREDIBLE fans ...

Lizzy really belts out this forgotten Irving Berlin song against Adolf Hi**er. Enjoy.

When that Man is Dead and Gone (1941) - Protest song against Hi**er (Live Take) Update #2: Wow, overwhelmed by the recent love for this video! For those who want to support our music, you can purchase it directly on our website (link bel...

I think I need to read this book.

This we reflect on the work of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under FDR. As Hi**er rose to power, thousands of desperate German-Jewish refugees contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service (then part of the Department of Labor) applying for immigration to the United States by writing letters that began “Dear Miss Perkins . . .”

“Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from N**i Germany” by Rebecca Brenner Graham is a fascinating portrait of Perkins based on extensive research including thousands of letters housed in the National Archives. The book adds a new dimension to Perkins’ legacy and her battle to make America a safer place for refugees during WWII.

Rebecca Brenner Graham is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. She has a PhD in history from American University. Her writing has been published most recently in Politico Magazine, Time, Slate, and Ms.

Rebecca (2015), like Frances Perkins (1902), is an alum of Mount Holyoke College. She is also an alum of our summer internship program—which we are still accepting applications for summer 2026! See comments for details.

Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank, dies at 96 Schloss, who was friends with Frank in Amsterdam and whose mother later married Frank's father, was a tireless educator about the Holocaust and was honorary president of The Anne Frank Trust UK.

One of the essential legacies of the New Deal is social security: a program of retirement pensions and social insurance for all Americans.

The social security system today serves over 70 million elderly and disabled people across the nation. Is that system now under threat?

To find out, please visit

Social Security at 89—Still the Third Rail? “We put those pay roll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social

We honor the life and work of the 16th Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Lecturer, William Leuchtenburg, 1922-2025.
https://apnews.com/article/william-leuchtenburg-died-102-historian-fdr-ab20f22b68a34cb7b919e2c75e1ab3dc

Announcing the publication of The New Deal: Looking Back, Moving Forward, edited by David Lembeck and Christopher Breiseth. $25 (see link below). E-Pub also available. The book features chapters written by National New Deal Preservation Association members and includes a chapter on The New Deal and Chicago written by Center for New Deal Studies Director Margaret Rung. She also co-wrote another chapter on FDR and ER memorials. Richly illustrated and informative, it provides a lively, accessible and timely overview of a reform movement that so urgently needs to be remembered and promoted.

Our Books — National New Deal Preservation Association NNDPA Our books are available directly from our printer IngramSpark and through many other book sellersYou may order direct using these links The New Deal: Looking Back, Moving Forward ISBN ‎979-8218364618 Order View Table of Contents Women and the Spirit of the New Deal ISBN 978-0578437071 Order View T...