Laura Hapke, American Working-Class History and the WPA Art of the 1930s (Cambridge Scholars Press, U.K.,2008). The book scrutinizes intersections between the burgeoning and tumultous unionism of the Great Depression and its representation (or omission) in New Deal art.
Discussions of forty illustrations from a labor historical perspective by artists such as Raphae Soyer, Dox Thrash, Isabel Bishop, and Hugo Gellert illuminate both relationships and tensions between WPA artists and the labor subjects they were hired to depict.
Labor's Canvas includes chapters on Federal Artist Project cultural politics; the WPA and FAP in relation to the AFL and CIO; the forging of image about minorities such African American workingmen and female breadwinners; and the FAP artist as blue-collar worker. It can be ordered online through [url]http://www.c-s-p.org[/url].