Race and Anti-Communism, 1945–1952

Author(s):  
Colleen Doody

This chapter demonstrates how anti-Communism became a means to debate the proper role of government on the issue of race rights. Liberals and their leftist allies supported the wartime New Deal's vision of an expanded role for government in both fair housing and fair employment for African Americans. They embraced the inclusive, democratic nationalism of the New Deal. Opponents of this view argued that racial advances would come at the expense of white workers and homeowners. These groups supported a far more limited conception of the New Deal, one that shied away from racial equality while providing federal support for white homeownership. They often equated racial egalitarianism with Socialism and Communism.

Labor Pains ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 99-136
Author(s):  
Christin Marie Taylor

Much of Eudora Welty’s writing during the Popular Front era shows a writer with an eye turned toward black workers and their centrality in southern American life, from the ordinary everyday to major political events. Welty’s use of fear and desire reconfigures discourses about black workers, including myths of rape in the midst of Popular Front anti-lynching efforts. With the case of Scottsboro and others whispering in the background, her interrelated vignettes and short fiction engage the failures of the New Deal to address the painful occurrences of lynching and labor oppression experienced by African Americans. The Golden Apples (1949) and other short stories offer a sense of racial terror, fear, and desire —feelings that not only challenged perceptions of blackness but also questioned the role of white feminine agency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Hartt ◽  
Albert J. Mills ◽  
Jean Helms Mills

Purpose This paper aims to study the role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research through a case study of the trajectory of the New Deal as one of the foremost institutions in the USA since its inception in the early 1930s. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow the trajectory of the New Deal through a focus on Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Drawing on ANTi-History, the authors view history as a powerful discourse for organizing understandings of the past and non-corporeal Actants as a key influence on making sense of (past) events. Findings The authors conclude that non-corporeal Actants influence the shaping of management and organization studies that serve paradoxically to obfuscate history and its relationship to the past. Research limitations/implications The authors drew on a series of published studies of Henry Wallace and archival material in the Roosevelt Library, but the study would benefit from an in-depth analysis of the Wallace archives. Practical implications The authors reveal the influences of non-corporeal Actants as a method for dealing with the past. The authors do this through the use of ANTi-History as a method of historical analysis. Social implications The past is an important source of understanding of the present and future; this innovative approach increases the potential to understand. Originality/value Decisions are often black boxes. Non-Corporeal Actants are a new tool with which to see the underlying inputs of choice.


1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren E. Miller ◽  
J. Merrill Shanks

As the Reagan administration neared the end of its first full year in office, interpretations of the meaning of the 1980 presidential election were still as varied as the political positions of analysts and commentators. The politically dominant interpretation, promoted by the new administration and its supporters, was that the election provided a mandate to bring about several fundamental changes in the role of government in American social and economic life. In recommendations whose scope had not been matched since the first days of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the Reagan administration set about responding to what it understood to be popular demands for reduced government spending and taxes, expansion of the national defence establishment, limitation of environmental protection in favour of the development of energy resources, and a myriad of other tasks designed to encourage free enterprise by ‘getting government off the backs of the people’. With varying degrees of enthusiasm for the new administration's programmes, scores of Democratic politicians shared the interpretation of Reagan's victory as a new electoral mandate which rejected many of the fundamental policies of Democratic administrations from Roosevelt to Carter. This interpretation of the ‘meaning’ of the 1980 election was expressed by Democratic congressmen of many political colours who decried the bankruptcy of their own leadership and affirmed the victor's sense of mandate by supporting the President's various legislative programmes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy J. Cooke

From 1862 to 1923, congressional seed distribution was among the most important functions of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). One of the largest agricultural programs in the late nineteenth century, the practice itself stayed in place until 1923. The subject of little historical research, the seed distribution project is usually viewed as a failure of the scientific agricultural establishment, or as vote mongering by Congress, and its demise as the simple culmination of Progressive Era reform. However, this episode in American history reveals much more than debates over science and agriculture by highlighting the many cultural, economic, scientific, and political questions about the proper role of government in a democracy. By examining heated contemporary political exchanges and published critiques, this article assesses what different constituencies viewed as good in government as they argued for or against free seed distribution, even as the USDA used seed as a vehicle for consolidating the place of science and knowledge in agriculture and in government.


1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore J. Eismeier ◽  
Philip H. Pollock

The current American debate about the relationship between business and government represents the most significant reopening of that issue since the New Deal. The debate is in part about government's role in the economy, but the issue of business's role in politics is being joined as well, joined in fact on several fronts. There are, of course, the polemics of corporations and their critics, in which business is cast alternately as victim and villain. The issue also divides more serious students of American politics and has fostered a wealth of theorizing about the role of the state. Finally, the issue of business influence pervades discussions about campaign finance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 2940-2943
Author(s):  
Kai Zhao

The proper role of government in economic development is one of the biggest single issues confronting China today. The paper attempts to trace and describe the role played by the government in renewable energy development. The goals focused in the article are two ones. The first one is to explore the theoretical basis on the role of government. The second one is to examine the practices in China. Based on the analysis of theory and practices in China, the paper argues that government propelling is quite crucial to renewable energy development, and concludes that further incentive policies and implementation system should be improved.


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