Our special guest is Mr. Nick Taylor, the author of  the recent book American-Made, The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR put the Nation to Work. Mr. Taylor was last on The Advocates on July 16th of this year.  On December 9, 2008, Mr. Taylor wrote an Op-Ed contribution that was published in the NY Times, “FDR Knew How to Spend Carefully,”   

Download | Duration: 00:52:26

Today we will be talking about the comparisons between March of 1933 and the emergence of the New Deal, and what the new Obama administration faces regarding our economic malaise.

Nick Taylor has written ten books of non-fiction, both solely and in collaboration, on a wide variety of subjects.  His history of the Works Progress Administration was published last February to wide acclaim.

Taylor’s other subjects include tournament bass fishing, the Mafia, and life in a small church. His memoir, A Necessary End recounts a baby boomer’s growing concern and care for his parents in their final years.  His story of an intrepid Israeli’s journey into the German neo-Nazi underground, In Hitler’s Shadow, written with Yaron Svoray, was adapted as the HBO feature movie, The Infiltrator, starring Oliver Platt.  His account of a Mafia family in the government’s witness protection program, Sins of the Father, is currently under a motion picture option.  Laser, published in 2000, tells the story of the laser’s true inventor and his thirty-year fight to win the patents that would make him rich.  And he worked with astronaut and Senator John Glenn on the bestselling, John Glenn: A Memoir.

His pro bono work includes four years as president of the Authors Guild, the oldest and largest organization of published writers in the United States, which advocates for authors’ rights.  He is a native of western North Carolina who today lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Barbara Nevins Taylor, who is an investigative reporter for Fox TV’s New York stations Fox 5 and My 9 News.
Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:

• Are there any real comparisons between 1933 and today?
• Can President –Elect Obama hope to live up to FDR?
• Does Obama need another Harry Hopkins or Harold Ickes?
• Are we better off letting the automobile industry collapse?