The New Deal in Orange County, California

Book excerpt: This historical tour explores how FDR’s domestic programs helped revitalize a region devastated by natural disasters and the Great Depression. While many people are familiar with the New Deal’s sweeping initiatives, few have a nuanced sense of what this “alphabet soup” of organizations actually did on a local level. In this fascinating book, historian Christopher Epting looks at the various New Deal projects undertaken in Orange County, showing how they met the myriad needs of its struggling communities. Unpredictably harsh elements wreaked havoc in Orange County during the Great Depression. The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 and the 1938 Santa Ana River flood took numerous lives, decimated buildings and destroyed much of the county's namesake citrus industry. In response, Orange County received federal public aid through the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and other agencies. Epting reveals their efforts in this tour of the buildings, bridges, harbors, trails, libraries, highways and other infrastructure gains—many still in use—that were revitalized by President Roosevelt’s New Deal.