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

The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was one of a plethora of federal programs during the height of the Depression. Part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the FWP was formed in 1935 and officially lasted until 1942, although it was severely crippled in 1939 by the escalating backlash against the New Deal. It was designed to combat unemployment as well to explore and document local cultures and thus to leave a vibrant cultural legacy. Differing from previous administrative studies, Jerrold Hirsch's "cultural history" focuses on the FWP "as part of the cultural component of the New Deal's program of political and economic reform"(p. 1). While taking a generally positive view of the FWP, Hirsch is nonetheless critical of its various shortcomings, as he feels that the project could have accomplished more in its brief life. Most FWP administrators, including Henry Alsberg, B. A. Botkin, and Sterling Brown, drew upon their knowledge of and belief in cultural pluralism to pursue their innovative programs, which were designed to "create both a cosmopolitan feeling and primordial ties" throughout the country (p. 39).

Hirsch concentrates on the unique American Guide Series, a group of publications that covered states, regions, and cities, not only incorporating features of travel guides but also exploring history, culture, folkways, architecture, and much more. Local writers were employed in these projects. Although heavily based on academic research and scholarship and intended "to be received as a literary contribution to American culture," the guides also served a commercial function in promoting travel and tourism (p. 53). FWP officials established guidelines to promote high quality work among the numerous local researchers and writers while still allowing room for diversity and creativity. While Hirsch is mostly positive about the guides' accomplishments, he is nonetheless critical of their built-in limitations. The essays on history, literature, art, and architecture were generally based on the idea of progress, "the romantic nationalist view of the ideal relationship between artist and community, and the conviction that valuing the indigenous and the provincial is easily reconciled with celebrating diversity and maintaining cosmopolitan standards" (p. 64). The problem was that the writers did not deal directly with conditions during the Depression. Indeed, they linked past and future with hardly a glimpse at the present. For Hirsch, they dealt more with myths than reality.

The guides were most helpful for automobile tours, taking tourists to previously unknown places and often emphasizing cultural diversity, but they offered few analytical insights. As for African American history and culture, the research, based on path-breaking oral histories, certainly added a great deal of information to the scholarly record, particularly in southern states still burdened with racism and segregation. There was, however, little analysis, according to Hirsch, and the southern guides continued to reflect the local (white) perception of the positive aspects of white domination. Despite the guides' rather conservative bent, Martin Dies and his House Un-American Activities Committee attacked the FWP, and most of the New Deal, as being part of a left-wing conspiracy. While the guides continued to be published into 1941, the program was essentially dead after 1939. In his rather critical assessment, Hirsch nonetheless lauds the overall project for its belief in cultural diversity, past and present.

This is a fascinating study. Still, Hirsch leaves out most of the FWP's writers, including those who unearthed goldmines of folklore, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy in Florida, Jim Thompson (the later novelist) in Oklahoma, Studs Terkel, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Claude McKay, and Richard Wright. Similarly, many programs and projects are left unexplored, including the fascinating anthology American Stuff (Viking Press, 1937). The work is ultimately more an intellectual than a social history, for Hirsch is mostly concerned with tackling the difficulties in understanding and championing racial and cultural diversity in the U.S. As Hirsch himself summarizes, "Learning about...