In 1973, President Nixon halted new construction of public housing, claiming that the U.S. government had become "the biggest slumlord in history." Four decades earlier, in the depths of the Great Depression, strong political support for federally-subsidized low-income housing had resulted in the Housing Act of 1937.

By the 1950s, growing criticism of the housing constructed by local authorities and prejudice against poor residents--particularly African Americans--fueled opposition to new projects. This book documents the lively and wide-ranging national debate over public housing from the New Deal to Nixon.