Sharon Ann Musher is associate professor of history at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She resides in Philadelphia.
A compelling synthesis of federally funded cultural projects undertaken in the United States from 1933 to 1945, Musher's book is written for other historians but will certainly appeal to scholars in many fields-including American studies, cultural studies, public history, visual culture studies, and more. Eloquently written and historically balanced, the book uses anecdotal evidence and biography to animate the story of New Deal arts programming and notions of cultural capital in new and engaging ways. (Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame)