Scott Borchert

Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America chronicles a little-remembered chapter of FDR’s New Deal: the formation of the Federal Writers’ Project, which was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that saw unemployed workers become federal employees engaged in tasks such as building highways, repairing bridges and the like. The FWP did the same for unemployed writers of all stripes, from newspaper journalists to novelists to people in advertising; its stated intent, beyond providing employment to hundreds of thousands of workers during the Depression, was to create travel guides to each of the then-48 States. The book is divided into six “tours,” each illustrating how the project worked (and didn’t work) in various States and what sorts of obstacles each faced, from drunken employees to racism to a House committee, forerunner to HUAC, that strove to paint all FWP workers as communists and worse. Each section is informative and entertaining, and the book as a whole reminds readers that the period between the two World Wars was, in America and around the world, an era of turmoil and revolutionary zeal (similar to our world today, except that the revolutionary stances were primarily on the left rather than on the right of the political spectrum); happily for me, the work is thoroughly documented, with the footnotes at the end of the book comprising something like a third of the volume. There are also photographs of some of the key players, including Zora Neale Thurston, Richard Wright and Nelson Algren, names that modern readers might recognize. Really fascinating stuff; recommended.… (altro)

It was a roiling and seething experiment, and even its participants could not agree on what it all meant. ~from Republic of Detours by Scott Borchert

During the Depression, President Roosevelt's New Deal relief programs paid millions of people to work. White collar workers were also starving, including writers, editors, newspapermen, and college professors. The Federal Writers Project (FWP) was created to employ tens of thousands of writers across America; it is credited for preventing suicide rates among writers. The program not only printed over a thousand publications, it boosted the careers of the 20th c most iconic writers.

The FWP conceived of a series of American Guides, filled with a broad range of information, including geography, politics, history, folklore, and ethnographic and cultural studies. They were the ultimate travel guides, providing tours and destinations that were often known only to local people.

Author Scott Borchert's uncle had hundreds of the guides and he became curious to know who created them and why. "They carry a whiff of New Deal optimism," he writes, but they also managed to sidestep "those signature American habits of boosterism and aggressive national mythologizing." The Guides offer insight into how Americans saw themselves and their history.

Borchert uncovered how the massive program was rife with conflict and struggles. The state programs submitted articles to the D. C. editors. Conflicts arose. For instance, there was a backlash against the term Civil War by Southern states who wanted War Between the States.

Readers learn about the life, careers, and politics of the administrators and writers. In the 1930s, socialism was embraced by progressives, and many of the Guide writers were progressives who wrote about labor and attacked racial and economic inequity. Eventually, the program came under attack as a communist vehicle.

Tour One introduces Henry Alsberg, friend of Emma Goldman, selected to run the WPA in Washington DC. His first mission was to "take 3.5 million people off relief and put them to work." The quality of the work was unimportant. And yet, the largest publishing houses later testified to the quality of the guides.

Tour Two considers how the program worked in Idaho under Vardis Fisher who completed and published the first Guide. Tour Three takes us to Chicago where writers Nelson Algren, Studs Terkel, Frank Yerby, and Richard Wright were hired.

Tour Four goes to Florida where anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston joined a Negro Unit to write The Florida Negro. Tour Five goes to New York City, the most dysfunctional unit. Richard Wright left the FWP in Chicago, where he became friends with Margaret Walker, for New York City where he meet Ralph Ellison.

Tour Six returns to DC, the WPA attacked by Rep. Martin Dies, Jr., who contended that the organization was a stronghold of communists intending to create a propaganda outlet.

This is a broad ranging history of an era, the program, and the people who ran and worked in it, and its legacy. The Guides legacy includes inspiring authors John Steinbeck and William Least Heat-Moon.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through Net Galley. My review is fair and unbiased.… (altro)