1976 Federal Policies And Worker Status Since The Thirties

Abstract

To provide a cornerstone for this historical analysis of federal social and labor policies as they affected and continue to affect workers, Irving Bernstein evokes the social unrest of the Great Depression-when unemployment peaked at 25 percent of the labor force in the worst year, 1933, and never fell below 14 percent. He discusses the political climate of that time and presents an interesting account of those who shaped and administered New Deal social and labor policies. One was Frances Perkins, whom President Roosevelt appointed Secretary of Labor at the time he took office in March 1933. The program she proposed at the outset was effectuated within 12 years, an achievement that was possible because over a long period much thought had been given to the social problems of industrialization.