Rexford Tugwell

Who was Rexford Tugwell?

Rexford Guy Tugwell was an agricultural economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust," a group of Columbia University academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt's 1932 election as President. Tugwell subsequently served in FDR's administration for four years and was one of the chief intellectual contributors to his New Deal. His ideas on urban planning during the Great Depression resulted in the construction of Greenbelt, Maryland and other new suburbs.

Later in his life, Tugwell served as the director of the New York City Planning Commission, the US-appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, and a professor at various universities, with lengthy service at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He wrote twenty books, covering the politics of the New Deal, biographies of major politicians, issues in planning, and memoirs of some of his experiences.