New Deal Planning

'Marion Clawson has written a penetrating and fascinating account of the birth, life, and death of the 'most nearly comprehensive planning organization this country has ever known.' He spins a good yarn that captures the spirit of the depression times in the nation's capitol and takes obvious pleasure in dissecting the personalities as well as the issues involved... Few institutional biographies (for this is what Clawson gives us) have been attempted with such depth and breadth of treatment. Indeed few people are qualified to make the attempt, and even fewer have succeeded at the effort...' Journal of the American Planning Association'... Marion Clawson's valuable study of Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Resources Planning Board (NRPB) will interest not only historians of the New Deal but planners (and anti-planners) of the present and future. [He] brings to the study personal memories of New Deal Washington, the experience of a veteran public servant and the detachment of a thoughtful analyst of public administration...his research is extensive and his judgment incisive and discriminating.' Political Science Quarterly

• Chapter 1 An Overview; Part 1 Origin and Setting; Chapter 2 The Situation From Which the Board Arose; Chapter 3 Predecessors of the Board; Part 2 History, Organization, Operation; Chapter 4 The Evolution of the Board and Its Predecessor Agencies; Chapter 5 Actors in the Board's Operations; Chapter 6 Organization, Structure, and Functioning; Chapter 7 The Roles Played by the Board; Part 3 Substantive Fields and Activities; Chapter 8 NRPB Reports Concerning Natural Resources; Chapter 9 NRPB Reports Concerning People and Their Lives; Chapter 10 NRPB Economic Inquiries and Reports; Chapter 11 NRPB Concerns With Transportation and Urban Structure; Chapter 12 NRPB Reports on Planning; Chapter 13 The NRPB as War and Postwar Planner; Part 4 The NRPB in the Structure of American Government; Chapter 14 The NRPB in Relation to State and Regional Planning Organizations; Chapter 15 The NRPB and Other Executive Branch Agencies; Chapter 16 The NRPB and FDR; Chapter 17 The NRPB and Congress; Part 5 Demise and Legacy; Chapter 18 Why and How Congress Killed the NRPB; Chapter 19 How Hard Did FDR Fight to Save the NRPB?; Chapter 20 The Legacy; Chapter 21 An Appraisal; Chapter 22 Does the United States Need a Reconstituted NRPB Today?;