Harvey L. Smith presents “Berkeley and the New Deal”

Sunday, 9 November 2014
2 pm–4 pm
Berkeley History Center
1931 Center Street, Berkeley

Talk and book signing. Free admission.

Sunday, 16 November 2014
2 pm
Eastwind Books
2066 University Avenue, Berkeley

Book reading.

Berkeley’s 1930s and early 1940s New Deal structures and projects left a lasting legacy of utilitarian and beautiful infrastructure. These public buildings, schools, parks, and artworks helped shape the city and the lives of its residents; it is hard to imagine Berkeley without them.

The artists and architects of these projects mention several themes: working for the community, responsibility, the importance of government support, collaboration, and creating a cultural renaissance. These New Deal projects, however, can be called “hidden history” because their legacies have been mostly ignored and forgotten. Comprehending the impact of the New Deal on one American city is only possible when viewed as a whole.

Harvey L. Smith has been researching this part of Berkeley’s history for more than two decades. The images in his new book have been selected from local and national archives and from the author’s contemporary photographs of the living legacy of the New Deal.