ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the eight-decade period from the beginning of the Great Depression to the present day. The 1930s was a peculiar time in the history of planning. It awakened great optimism about planning, and indeed, several new areas of planning were opened up. Federal funding and increased state interest in planning accelerated a trend that had begun in the late 1920s, namely the creation of state planning agencies. The housing initiative of the federal government that had the most far-reaching effects was not one that fell into the realm of planning but rather into the realm of finance. World War II swept the City Realty Corporation off the national agenda, but the idea, under a different name, became one of the bases of the Housing Act of 1949, which established Urban Renewal. The Depression era saw the start of a number of regional planning efforts, the best known of which was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
