Customer Reviews

Portrait of America: A Cultural History of the Federal Writers' Project

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"Portrait of America" takes a bit different approach to the history of the FWP. Rather than focusing on the range of writers, topics, genres, and other features of the era, Hirsch provides us with a cultural history of the project. His main focus is on ways in which selected writers, administrators, and governmental officials were working with the tension between romantic nationalism and cultural pluralism that Hirsch regards as a central problem within New Deal ideology. Hirsch uses a wealth of new and largely under-used resources -- including unpublished archival records -- to provide fresh insights into the motivations and ideologies that are part of this era's politics of culture. The history is especially interesting when Hirsch looks at how the competing ideologies are given different spins during different eras. Hirsch's analysis is most valuable when he demonstrates how older questions about representing American culture, history and identities remain part of the contemporary discourse into our 21st Century. The book fills a needed gap for researchers interested in FWP writers' attention to American folklore, social history, and various vernacular forms of expressive culture. It also provides an excellent historical context for understanding an important part of the foundation of organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a variety of other national, state, and local agencies that are rooted in New Deal politics.

I completely agree with the previous reviewer. The author has such a cursory knowledge of the subject matter its hard to believe this book got published. The FWP's history is easily available, why didn't the author do his research properly? These 'revisionist' writer's shouldn't be allowed to publish such rubbish. Save your money.

I've never read such a poorly written and researched book in my entire life. The author is a complete revisionist. He has such a poor knowledge of History it boggles the mind!

Readers!- Save your money and search out better resources concerning the subject matter.