Date of Award

2014

Degree Name

History

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Kevin Barksdale

Second Advisor

Robert Sawrey

Third Advisor

Robert Deal

Abstract

Employing archival research, this study examines the history of the New Deal’s influence on higher education, focusing on Marshall University, at the time Marshall College, from approximately 1932-1940. First, it analyzes the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and National Youth Administration (NYA) student part-time employment program’s impact on the college. Second, it discusses the PWA’s (Public Works Administration) and WPA’s (Works Progress Administration) building programs’ and flood relief efforts’ effect on Marshall. Finally, this study explores the political implications of the New Deal with emphasis on state politics and financial problems and their relationship to Marshall. A study of Marshall College illuminates better understanding of the New Deal’s influence on American higher education in a rural and frequently impoverished area. This, in turn, will expand the knowledge of how federal government involvement affected state-run institutions of higher education. The experiences of Marshall College demonstrate that the New Deal greatly affected higher education in both helpful and problematic ways.

Subject(s)

Marshall College (Huntington, W. Va.)

New Deal, 1933-1939.

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