The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Fall 1989, Volume 35, Number 4
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
Book Notes
Raymond Starr, Book Review Editor
The WPA Guide to 1930s Arizona.
Compiled by the Workers of the Writers Programs of the Works Project Administration. Foreword by Stewart Udall. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989. Photographs. Maps. Bibliography. Index. 530 Pages.
One of the more enduring contributions of the New Deal has been the series of state guides which the WPA Writer’s project prepared. They contained good descriptions of the state- the land, archaeology, history, transportation, fine arts, the towns and countryside. They suggested a variety of tours, which contained considereble information about the localities on the itinerary.The volumes are good on several levels. On one level they tell us about the knowledge and attitudes of the 1930s; on another level they are still good starting points for historical research or contemporary tours of the areas described. Many of the volumes have been reprinted recently (for instance Pantheon reprinted the California volume in 1984), and we are fortunate the University of Arizona has made the Arizona and New Mexico volumes available again.
