{"product_id":"republic-of-detours-9781250849083","title":"Republic of Detours","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003eEditors'' Choice  Winner of the New Deal Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn immersive account of the New Deal project that created state-by-state guidebooks to America, in the midst of the Great Depressionand employed some of the biggest names in American letters\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe plan was as idealistic as it was audaciousand utterly unprecedented. Take thousands of hard-up writers and put them to work charting a country on the brink of social and economic collapse, with the aim of producing a series of guidebooks to the then forty-eight statesalong with hundreds of other publications dedicated to cities, regions, and townswhile also gathering reams of folklore, narratives of formerly enslaved people, and even recipes, all of varying quality, each revealing distinct sensibilities. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll this was the singular purview of the Federal Writers' Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration founded in 1935 to employ jobless writers, from once-\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49528991973719,"sku":"9781250849083","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781250849083.jpg?v=1731873869","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/republic-of-detours-9781250849083","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}