Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times

"In Furious Improvisation, Susan Quinn brings to life the challenges of a desperate era when FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the tough-talking idealist Harry Hopkins furiously improvised programs to get millions of hungry, unemployed people back to work. Quinn's compelling story of politics and creativity reaches a dramatic climax with the rise of Martin Dies and his newly formed House Un-American Activities Committee, which turned the Federal Theatre Project into the first victim of a red scare that would roil the nation for the next twenty years." "Furious Improvisation is a portrait of the turbulent 1930s, rich in humor and anecdotes that combine to tell not only the story of the theatre project but also the Great Depression and government intervention in a time of national peril, a time when the still-pressing issues of discrimination, injustice, and the meaning of liberty commanded center stage."--BOOK JACKET.Quinn, Susan is the author of 'Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times', published 2008 under ISBN 9780802716989 and ISBN 0802716989.