We only half-understand how meaning depends upon geography. We usually think of meaning in global terms, as having to do with the universals of truth, goodness, and beauty. But global meanings are anchored in the unselfconscious geography of everyday life, the “rhythmic functional patterns” by which we order time and space. Those patterns change over the lifetime of the individual, profoundly altering what life means to him.

Thoreau first told me about this predecessor of mine;…that here…dwelt, in some long past time, in this man who resolved never to die…

It gave me a stronger interest in this spot; and according to my custom, I mused and meditated, and thought within myself, and tried to make out what manner of man this might be, that deemed it within his power to subvert the usual conditions of humanity. …Had he discovered …the great secret philosophers used to seek for?

Thirty years after the publication of Arthur Schlesinger's The Crisis of the Old Order and two decades after the “New Left” provoked a modicum of self-examination by established historians of the New Deal, there is still no general revisionist work or interpretation of the 1930s of the stature of Schlesinger, Leuchtenburg or Freidel. Despite twenty years of revisionist challenges, the notion of the 1930s as an affirmative and progressive era in American history remains dominant and commands broad acceptance. Revisionist analysis has appeared marginal to the dominant interpretations of the New Deal and has been either easily accommodated or effortlessly dismissed by the “liberal historical establishment.” This does not validate the dominant discourse so much as suggest that dissenting historians have pursued unrewarding lines of enquiry in challenging prevailing orthodoxy about the nature and significance of the New Deal. Whatever their differences, revisionists have shared with the “liberal establishment” the assumption that it was public policy which ensured the State's survival during the severe economic crisis of the 1930s and which provides the touchstone for historical evaluation of the New Deal. In the course of this review of the overarching concerns of historical writing about the New Deal it is intended to suggest that new perspectives and points of reference are required, and are being developed, to reinvigorate revisionist historiography of the New Deal period, and to shed light, in particular, on the State's ability to withstand crisis. As the debate over slavery was enlivened and sharpened by the introduction of cultural perspectives, so historical analysis of the New Deal stands to derive similar benefit.

To an increasing degree, the American states in recent years have taken the lead in domestic policymaking. In many areas — education, economic development, welfare reform, health care, housing and the environment, among others — state governors and legislatures are providing the initiative in identifying public needs, setting policy agenda and devising effective programmes to implement them.