The WPA of the 1930's
4-weeks (first 4) | Available (Membership Required)
The WPA, Works Progress Administration (1935-1943), was the most ambitious jobs
program in our country's history. Besides putting millions of unemployed Americans to
work on construction projects, it provided jobs for seamstresses, teachers, painters,
musicians, actors, writers, clerks, nurses and archaeologists. This course explores what
the WPA achieved, what it meant to the people involved and what we can learn from it
today.
Sandra Opdycke
Sandra Opdycke Ph.D., has published books about the women’s suffrage movement, the fluepidemic of 1918, the WPA of the 1930s, Bellevue Hospital and Jane Addams, and has co-
authored several books on social policy. She worked for a number of years at Hudson River
Psychiatric Center, and later taught American History and Urban History at Bard, Vassar and
Marist Colleges. She now teaches frequently at the Marist Center for Lifetime Studies and the
Vassar Lifelong Learning Institute.