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Government poster promoting Social Security, 1936

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act of 1935

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This next set of images will come from social programs of the 20th century welfare state.

The first food stamps, 1939

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Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, sometime between 1939 and 1942.

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Mass meeting of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, arguably the most important civil rights organization of the interwar years, Chicago, 1933

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Member of the New Negro Alliance protesting white-owned firms in black neighborhoods not hiring black employees, Washington DC, 1930s

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Brothel scene from Act II of Brecht's Threepenny Opera, New York, 1933

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Suburb of Akron, Ohio, late 1930s.

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Last night on the plane, I read D. J. Waldie's fascinating ode to his suburban neighborhood in Lakewood, California, Holy Land. Lakewood still sounds awful, but he does give his long-abused town and its residents a real dignity.

In honor of the book, this week images will focus on the history of the suburbs.

Political ad opposing the rezoning of El Camino Real, the major street through the San Francisco suburb of Burlingame, California, for business development, 1930s.

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Japanese Chamber of Commerce float, Seattle International Potlatch Day Parade, 1939

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Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas, 1930s

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 "How I Made My Marriage Happy," from the August 1930 issue of the magazine Physical Culture. Which really sounds like the name of an academic journal.

Good Days in American History: Februrary 11, 1937

I know it's weird for me to talk about good things that have happened in the American past. But sometimes, good can defeat evil. And it's worth talking about.

On February 11, 1937 General Motors finally agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers as the union representing their employees. It only took a herculean effort from the workers. On January 30, 1936, workers inside a Flint, Michigan GM plant sat-down on the job and refused to leave until GM recognized their union. GM tried all it could to crush the strike. They convinced a judge to issue an injunction against the strike, which was a real threat until the UAW found out that the judge owned a mere $200,000 in GM stock. GM convinced the Flint police force to attempt an invasion of the factory on January 11, but the workers kept them away by turning the plant's fire hoses on the cops. The police fired tear gas, but the strikers' wives broke holes in the plant's windows from the outside to give the workers some relief. When the strike spread to an additional plant on February 1, GM knew it had to negotiate.

But GM was so disgusted they refused to speak directly to the UAW representatives, forcing Michigan's governor, Frank Murphy, to serve as an intermediary between the two groups. Finally, on February 11, an agreement was reached. The UAW exploded in numbers, growing from 300,000 to 500,000 members in the next year.

Sadly, the UAW thought they had won not only the battle but also the war. During and after World War II, the UAW and the other CIO-affiliated unions decided to kick out the communist organizers who made so much of their success possible, get into bed with the companies, and assume permanent employment and great benefits. Of course, GM and every other American company were already looking for ways out of these arrangements with unions and began building new factories in the South and Mexico, which set the groundwork for the destruction of well-paid manufacturing labor in the United States, the crushing of Rust Belt economies, and globalization that would create cheap consumer products for Americans on the backs on nonunionzed impoverished labor in the developing world.

There are some wonderful oral histories of the Flint workers here. Check 'em out!

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Dead horse washed into tree by flood, near Louisville, Kentucky, 1937

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Ad for help getting off tobacco addiction, 1934

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Dorothea Lange photo of North Carolina tobacco sharecroppers, 1939.

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Cotton pickers, Arkansas, 1935

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This week's theme is agriculture in American history.

Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936

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Oil equipment, Golden Meadow, Louisiana, 1939

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Oil drilling crew, Texas, 1931