The New Deal is generally understood as a turning point in the history of the American state. In particular, scholars have seen the 1930's as a pivotal moment in the constitutional, administrative, and social welfare histories of the United States. This course examines the historical and legal backdrop of the New Deal, the events of the period itself, and the subsequent trajectory of the changes set in motion by the New Deal. Readings for the course will include, in addition to the legal history of the New Deal, a wide range of scholarship from the fields of history, sociology, and political science addressing the development of institutions and state capacities.
The course proceeds in three segments. It begins with an examination of the ongoing debates in several fields of scholarship over whether the New Deal did or did not, in fact, inaugurate a new era of expanded federal power. An examination of this question goes back into the New Deal itself in order to examine how events were perceived and portrayed at the time, and also into the more distant past where the class may examine events and policies that are now understood as "precursors" of the New Deal state, such as Revolutionary and Civil War Pensions, federal disaster relief, and state efforts at labor regulation. From there, the course looks at the subsequent history of post-New Deal policy development, focusing on whether and how the New Deal has shaped the American state through such developments as the Great Society and welfare reform.