Harry Hopkins’ extended period of service to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington, from 1933 through 1945, involved two prominent, and seemingly distinct, roles. First, Hopkins’ initial rise to national prominence, as an administrator of novel programs of both direct and works-relief programs to combat the debilitating nature of the Great Depression, demonstrated his commitment to the cause of New Deal liberalism. He would spend billions as an administer of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) to families in desperate need of direct relief, organize nationwide programs of work relief that constructed thousands of schools, airports, roads, playgrounds, and hundreds of other projects while providing meaningful employment to a desperate population of millions in both the brief Civil Works Administration (CWA) and more longevous Works Progress Administration (WPA). Hopkins’ second phase of service to Roosevelt contained a bid for the presidency in 1940 which demanded a turn toward the business leaders of the nation in his new role as Secretary of Commerce. During World War II, he was able to navigate the personalities of Churchill, Stalin, and FDR to help forge a tremulous yet successful alliance to defeat the Axis Powers whilst managing Lend Lease aid production and distribution through his established Secretary of Commerce contacts.
Despite both the power that Hopkins possessed and the breadth of interests he was involved with, surprisingly little has been written about the totality of his career, particularly of his immediate pre-war tenure as Secretary of Commerce. Some scholars write of this period with scorn, painting Hopkins as an ambitious man who discarded the New Deal to either pursue the presidency or to help FDR court business leaders in the push for wartime mobilization. Others only passingly mention Hopkins’ time as Secretary of Commerce, eager instead, to delve into Hopkins’ more esteemed wartime position. The effect of this inability to rigorously investigate this period of Hopkins’ career is profound. Hopkins becomes divided between an ardent New Dealer dedicated to serving the interests of the unemployed and a self-serving, war-driven man eager to make inroads with the nation’s business interests for personal or political gain. A study of the Secretary of Commerce years partially bridges these divergent characterizations of Hopkins, allowing for an insight into the anxieties of the New Deal circles in the late 1930s to be gleaned, contextualizing Hopkins’ shift of priorities from 1938 onwards in the political environment of which he operated.