The achievement of American liberalism: the New Deal and its legacies

The New Deal established the contours and character of modern American democracy.

It created an anchor and a reference point for American politics through the struggles for racial, gender, and economic equality in the five decades that followed it.

From the consensus liberalism of the war years to the strident liberalism of the sixties to the besieged liberalism of the eighties and through the ongoing national debates about welfare reform and Social Security privatization, the prominent historians gathered here explore the convoluted history of the American Left.