Paul V. McNutt was a great figure of the FDR era, and a politician and statesman of great importance. Dean Kotlowski's biography of McNutt, McNutt and the Age of FDR, explores his life, his time, and his relationship with Franklin Roosevelt. It sheds light on the expansion of executive power at the state level during the Great Depression, the theory and practice of liberalism as understood by federal administrators in the 1930s and 1940s, the mobilization of the American home front during World War II, and the internal dynamics of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.
Indianapolis was founded as the seat of the new state capital in 1820 by an act of the Indiana General Assembly. The city was home to the Lenape (Delaware nation), a native tribe that lived along the White River. Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists established the first religious congregations in Indianapolis in the 1820s, but other groups, such as Episcopalians, Disciples of Christ, Lutherans, Catholics, Congregationalists, the Society of Friends (Quakers), Universalists, Unitarians, and Jewish congregations were also established before the Civil War. The Indianapolis Turngemeinde (185), or Turners, merged with other German clubs and was renamed Indianapolis Social Turnverein. McNutt's life highlights the challenges and changes that Americans faced during an era of economic depression, global conflict, and decolonization.
A Republican state legislator and former member of the Indianapolis City and County Council attempted to install signs prohibiting turning red at nearly 200 intersections in the city center. However, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the Indianapolis Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff's Department, and the Indianapolis Fire Department were all law enforcement agencies in Marion County even before Unigov in Indianapolis. Indianapolis has been closely linked to politics since its election as the seat of the Indiana government in the 1820s. Early in its history the city became a rail transportation hub for the region and a center for civic and cultural affairs. McNutt was governor of Indiana, high commissioner in the Philippines (while in service he helped 1,300 Jews flee Nazi Germany to Manila), director of the Federal Security Agency in World War II and a candidate for president. His life story is an important one that sheds light on many aspects of American history during this era.
