More than 60 years after his death, Richard Wright is again a bestselling author.

The New Deal was a try-anything moment during the Great Depression that remade the role of the federal government in American life. And as the U.S. confronts its most profound financial crisis since the Depression, brought on by the most deadly pandemic in a century, there are early soundings of a larger question: What would a “new” New Deal look like? “Responding to the crisis without also making our economy more resilient against future shocks would be a mistake,” she said. Even New Deal programs that improved lives did not insulate the American people. And at the end of 2019, no major economist forecasting this year envisioned that a pandemic would throw the world into turmoil.