Historical Context and Political Dynamics of Public Housing Development in the 1930s

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This chapter delves into the political dynamics and historical context that shaped public housing development in the 1930s, with a focus on the 1937 Wagner Public Housing Act and the tensions between housing advocates and mainstream national initiatives. It also explores the impact of the real estate industry's revival on housing policies, challenges stereotypes about public housing, and discusses the unintended consequences of New Deal housing programs on government support.

Featuring Gail Radford on her classic book Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era. Radford tells the story of Catherine Bauer, the Labor Housing Conference, and the struggle to make the American housing system a radically social one. In place of the two-tier system that won out, Bauer and her allies proposed a massive federally-backed system of noncommercial housing that would appeal to and house the majority of Americans. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882-1917) by Eric Blanc haymarketbooks.org/books/1907-revolutionary-social-democracy